Kevin Basemann grew up in Atkins, IA, a small rural town outside Cedar Rapids. He started his academic journey in high school and was able to take a number of courses through a partnership between his school the University of Iowa and a local community college Kirkwood Community College. As a high school student Kevin gained experience in software engineering at an aerospace communications company Rockwell Collins and research experience through work done for General Mills. After high school Kevin transferred to Iowa State University to study Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. At Iowa State University Kevin began working in the lab of George Kraus on the development of novel organic reactions focused on the use of biologically derived molecules as precursors for valuable chemicals and material precursors. His work was part of the Center for Biorenewable Chemicals. After completing his B.S. in chemistry he continued his graduate work at Iowa State University joining the labs of Aaron Sadow and Theresa Windus. He spent his graduate career developing and studying novel organometallic catalysts with the ultimate goal of developing a methodology to combine computational chemistry, experimental kinetics measurements, and machine learning to rapidly advance the discovery and optimization of novel catalysts. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 2021 he moved to the lab of Mike Gagné at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to work as a postdoctoral research fellow. As a postdoc his work focused on the study of Z-type ligands and more directly species that behaved like Z-type ligands in reaction mechanisms. In August 2024 Kevin began his independent career at the University of Louisville within the chemistry department. Outside of lab Kevin enjoys hiking, biking, and camping is an avid reader and writer and spends much of his free time exploring the city of Louisville and surrounding areas of Kentucky and Indiana.