[1] Boal wrote her thesis, DNA-Mediated Charge Transport in DNA Repair, which won the Herbert Newby McCoy Award, in 2008 under the guidance of Jacqueline Barton.
[2] Following this, Boal accepted a post-doctoral position in Amy Rosenzweig's laboratory at Northwestern University where she studied interactions between platinum-based anticancer therapeutics and human copper homeostasis proteins.
[4] Upon joining the faculty, she was named a Searle Scholar to support her independent research into understanding how microorganisms acquire and use metal ions.
[6] Prior to her promotion to associate professor, Boal was the senior author of a study that showed that a new subclass of ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) was able to use a modified amino acid instead of a metal ion as the oxidizing agent.
[7] In the same year, she was recognized with a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award for being a young chemist who has "created an outstanding independent body of scholarship, and are deeply committed to education.