The elements heavier than iron are believed to be synthesized through a combination of rapid (r) and slow (s) neutron capture processes. The s-process and r-process are each generally responsible for half of the heavy elements overall. The specific astrophysical site(s) of the r-process is not known for sure, but neutron star mergers and core-collapse supernovae appear to be good candidates. The s-process occurs in asymptotic giant branch stars (main component) and massive stars (weak component). Many of the light heavy-elements (LHEs) 70<A<110 have their largest abundance components from the weak s-process (A<90), but also contain significant contributions from the main s-process and r-process. This work focuses on two independent aspects of LHE production, 1) neutron production in massive stars for the weak s-process and 2) the nuclear structure present in the LHEs. The former is investigated through low-energy reaction cross section measurements of the reaction 12C(12C,n)23Mg where measurements are pushed to lower energies than previous works could achieve and a new low-energy extrapolation is provided along with a quantitative estimate of the uncertainty in the astrophysical reaction rate. The new results suggest that this reaction is responsible for a significant neutron flux in weak s-process scenarios with a correspondingly significant affect on LHE abundances. The latter is investigated through sub-nanosecond lifetime measurements of excited states in odd-mass neutron-rich nuclides near A~110. Results are presented for the nucleus 109Pd, where 8 new lifetimes have been determined with several new levels and transitions assigned to the beta-decay of its parent 109Rh. The new results are discussed with the systematics in the mass region, which indicate that a strong p-n interaction between valence g9/2 protons and g7/2 neutrons influences the nuclear structure in the region including the rapid onset of shape transitions and presence of long-lived isomeric states which could play a role in the various nucleosynthesis processes.