Career Ladder: Candice Z. Ulmer Holland

Abstract

Early 2000s–2012 Falling for chemistry Candice Z. Ulmer Holland’s first time in a chemistry research lab was the summer after seventh grade. Through an outreach program at Claflin University, a historically Black school in her hometown of Orangeburg, South Carolina, she used infrared spectroscopy to investigate antioxidants in green tea. Ulmer went on to major in chemistry and biochemistry at the College of Charleston. Though she started on the premed track, she soon realized that she’d rather work in a lab. Ulmer discovered a knack for analytical chemistry in a course her first year. The precise work “meshed really well with my personality,” she says. So she approached the professor, Wendy Cory, about research and eventually joined her lab. 2012–16 Researching with purpose Ulmer continued to graduate school at the University of Florida. Her research in Richard A. Yost’s lab focused on using mass spectrometry to examine metabolites and lipid