She received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Ohio University in 1998, and her Ph.D. in analytical chemistry in 2003 from Purdue University. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center at the University of Georgia with James Prestegard before joining the faculty at Louisiana State University in 2008. Dr. Macnaughtan is an expert in bioanalytical nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)