Dr. Nikki Thiele earned her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Medicinal Chemistry) at the University of Florida under the guidance of Prof. Kenneth B. Sloan, where her research focused on developing prodrugs of iron chelators and other small molecules to improve their pharmacokinetic profiles. From there, she joined the bioinorganic research group of Prof. Justin J. Wilson at Cornell University, where she worked as a postdoctoral associate to develop expanded macrocyclic chelators for applications in targeted radionuclide therapy. In 2020, she accepted a research staff position in the Chemical Sciences Division at ORNL as a strategic hire. Her current research efforts focus on 1) probing the coordination chemistry of underexplored radioactive ions relevant to nuclear medicine, such as radium and actinium; 2) developing new chelation platforms for emerging diagnostic and therapeutic radionuclides of interest for use in imaging and treating cancer; and 3) applying the principles of molecular recognition to dissolve and separate rare earth minerals. Since starting her independent career, Dr. Thiele has received funding for projects from the Critical Materials Institute, DOE Isotope Program, and the Laboratory Directed Research & Development program at ORNL.