The Knight Re The Knight Research Group is one the newest in the UNC Chem-
Her work on designing materials for the remediation of hexava-
istry Department, as Abigail, “Abby,” Knight joined us as an As-
lent chromium contamination, the toxin that received world-
sistant Professor in the summer of 2018. However, Abby is a
wide attention with the story of Erin Brockovich, was highlight-
returnee to Carolina Chemistry. She completed her undergrad-
ed in Wired magazine with an article titled “We’ve got the secret
uate science degree here, majoring in Chemistry, with minors in
to cleaner water: more plastic.” Concepts and techniques
Mathematics and Biology.
from this work including peptidomimetic synthesis, design of high-throughput strategies, and the application of interdis-
As an undergraduate she was a participant in the Public Service
ciplinary approaches to identify new tools to approach global
Scholars Program, served as a Resident Advisor, and she com-
problems are at the forefront of the Knight group’s current re-
pleted an honors thesis in Professor Marcey Waters’ research
search goals.
group, developing new ligands for RNA and DNA structures. As her research interests crystallized around the overlap of After graduating from UNC, Abby continued her doctoral stud-
chemical biology and materials science, Abby selected a post-
ies in the chemical biology program at the University of Califor-
doctoral position with Prof. Craig Hawker at the University of
nia, Berkeley, where she joined the lab of Professor Matthew
California, Santa Barbara. An Arnold O. Beckman postdoctoral
Francis. Her doctoral research focused on the development of
scholar, she designed smart nanomaterials with a multitude of
a platform applying combinatorial libraries for the identification
architectures, including the development of peptide-polymer
of selective metal ligands to address major challenges in water
amphiphiles that assembled into distinct nanomaterial shapes
and environmental remediation and metal poisoning.
upon coordination of different transition metal ions. These pursuits provided expertise in materials characterization, support-
8 | CHEMISTRY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
| CHEM.UNC.EDU
