Emily is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, where she first became interested in chemistry as a high school student. She graduated from Williams College in 2002 as valedictorian with highest honors in chemistry. After spending a year at the University of Cambridge as a Churchill Scholar in the lab of Prof. Steven Ley, she pursued graduate studies in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CCB) at Harvard University, receiving her PhD in 2008. Her graduate work with Prof. Eric Jacobsen focused on the development of asymmetric catalytic transformations and their application in the total synthesis of complex molecules. From 2008–2011 she was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School in the lab of Prof. Christopher T. Walsh. Her research in the Walsh lab involved elucidating and characterizing biosynthetic pathways for the production of small molecule sunscreens by photosynthetic bacteria. She also received training in microbial ecology and environmental microbiology as a member of the Microbial Diversity Summer Course at the Marine Biology Lab at Woods Hole during the summer of 2009.

Emily joined the CCB faculty in 2011 and is currently the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of Chemistry and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. She is also an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Her research focuses on deciphering microbial metabolism and its role in complex microbial ecosystems like the human gut microbiome. Using chemical knowledge and tools, Emily and her group seek to discover new microbial enzymes and metabolites as well as elucidate their biological roles.  Their research program has been recognized with multiple awards, including the 2011 Smith Family Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research, the 2012 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the 2013 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, the 2019 Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists in Chemistry, and the 2020 Alan T. Waterman Award from National Science Foundation.