Dempsey attended the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology for her undergraduate, earning her S.B. in Chemistry in 2005. She worked with Prof.
Daniel G. Nocera on the development of molecular
water splitting catalysts. While at MIT, she also worked at
Merck Research Laboratories' Department of
Analytical Research, on the development of
HPLC columns for pharmaceutical
process development. Dempsey then travelled to the
California Institute of Technology for graduate studies, where she worked in the laboratory of Prof.
Harry B. Gray and
Jay R. Winkler. Dempsey's research at Caltech focused on elucidating the mechanism of
hydrogen evolution for
cobaloxime catalysts, as well as the reactivity of
photogenerated osmium(II) complexes. She graduated with her Ph.D. in 2011. From 2011 to 2012, Dempsey then conducted postdoctoral research as an NSF American Competitiveness in Chemistry Fellow in the laboratory of
Daniel R. Gamelin at the
University of Washington. There, she worked on photoconductive quantum dot thin films, as well as magnetic coupling in illuminated quantum dots. == Independent career ==