Posts classified under: Alumni

As a child, I moved frequently and attended five high schools throughout Arizona and Illinois. After high school, I obtained a cosmetology license and worked as a hair stylist in Arizona and California. I began attending Los Angeles City College while working full time and completed the necessary courses to transfer to UCLA. At UCLA, I received my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, Master of Science in Geochemistry, and Ph.D. in Geochemistry. While at UCLA, I have received awards for research and teaching including the Cota-Robles Fellowship, Office of the President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship, and an Excellence in Teaching Award. My doctoral thesis focused on the ultra-low abundance molecules of carbonate (CO₃) that contain at least two heavy isotopes. I used the abundance of these ultra-rare molecules for paleoclimate reconstructions, to understand how carbonate minerals transform from amorphous phases into crystals, and to examine kinetic isotope effects caused by CO₂ hydration and hydroxylation. As an IRACDA Fellow, I will continue to use cutting-edge applications of this method by examining the effects of increasing CO₂ concentrations on coral skeletons, geologic sites of interest for permanent storage of CO₂, and the potential to use speleothems for temperature reconstructions.

My long-term career goals include continuing to push the limits of mass spectrometry in multi-isotope systems. I hope to obtain a faculty position that allows me to provide research mentorship to budding scientists from diverse backgrounds.

I am a first-generation Mexican American, and I grew up in Indiana. I am in the first generation of my family to pursue higher education, and the first to obtain a PhD. With the mentorship from one of my science teachers, I started doing research with a professor at Purdue when I was a senior in high school studying the bacterial genetics of solute transporters implicated in osmolarity regulation. This experience piqued my interest in biological sciences, leading me to obtain my BS in Biochemistry from Purdue in 2015. I then did a year-long Postbaccalaureate research experience at the University of Iowa in the Englehardt lab working on a project  investigating the role of CFTR in lysosomal acidification using live cell imaging. I then matriculated into the Purdue Biological Sciences PhD Program, where I joined the Jiang Lab. During my PhD training, I studied the structure of a large bacterial virus, phage G, using single-particle cryo-EM and computational methods. Now in the Gonen lab at UCLA, I hope to expand my skill set in cryo-EM, and learn about crystallography and membrane protein biochemistry. Through IRACDA, I hope to learn about teaching in higher education and participate in scientific outreach activities that support underrepresented minorities in STEM. 

I grew up in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio and received my Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from Miami University in Ohio.  I received my PhD in Microbiology from Ohio State University in the lab of Dr. Kurt Fredrick.  My PhD research focused on characterizing roles of conserved GTPases in ribosome assembly.  I was awarded an NIH-funded T32 predoctoral fellowship for my research and a departmental teaching award for excellence in teaching undergraduates. Before coming to UCLA, I worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the National Institutes of Health under Dr. Alan Hinnebusch and Dr. Jon Lorsch, studying how regulatory proteins in yeast alter translation in response to nutrient starvation.  At UCLA, I am performing research in Dr. Guillaume Chanfreau’s lab, studying regulation of translation in response to metal starvation. I plan to pursue a faculty career that combines life science research with teaching at the university level.