Dr. Elaine S. Yamaguchi

Elaine Yamaguchi was born and raised in Fresno, CA, where she attended public schools through high school. For her undergraduate training, she chose Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. There she learned about organic chemistry and undergraduate research, as well as many non-science subjects, since Brandeis is a liberal arts university. After graduating in 1971, she studied at Yale University for her PhD in organic chemistry in 1976.  She then joined Chevron Oronite as a research chemist and worked as an experimentalist in the areas of organic synthesis, surface analytical chemistry, and triblogy until her retirement in 2010. During her Chevron career, she became the Project SEED coordinator of the CA Section, ACS, and grew the CA Section's SEED program over her 40 years of volunteering.