Elizabeth is the primary author and coauthor of more than 50 oral, poster presentations, conference proceedings and publications; which include a book chapter, peer-review manuscripts, a patent application, and a science policy paper. She has worked at top academic institutions: Harvard Medical School, UW-Madison, Georgia Institute of Technology, and government institutions: DOE Lawrence Berkeley Lab, Oakridge Natl. Lab., the National Science Foundation, API and the U.S. Congress. Today, she is the recipient of more than 30 awards including an NSF IGERT Fellowship and the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF). International awards includes: Best Poster, Shizouka, Japan; (2) Research Project Winner Birmingham, UK; (3) Paper Competition Winner at the International Conference on Remediation of Contaminated Sediments. As part of her dissertation she assigned function to a gene involved in the detoxification of 1,2-dichloropropane a potential carcinogen. Her efforts have been recognized by the Federation of European Microbiological Societies, NASA, the Congressional Hispanic Institute (CHCI), the American Society for Microbiology, the American Geophysical Union, P.R. Ford Foundation, Hispanic Business Inc., Jet Blue Foundation, 1 Million Woman in STEM, among others.
Project Info:
Elizabeth's background is very interdisciplinary, dancing in the borders of environmental chemistry, engineering, cutting-edge microbiological/molecular tools, and environmental policy. Research experience includes design and application of microbiological and molecular tools, biomarker discovery, plant-microbe interactions, biodegradation of chlorinated solvents, pesticides, hydrocarbons (PAH, gasoline and diesel), aquatic chemical ecology, applied/general microbial ecology and environmental biotechnology. She has worked at NSF and in Capitol Hill at the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, and led a policy summit of Green and Sustainable Remediation of Super Fund sites. Elizabeth is committed to education and outreach; she has served as a mentor in the Minority Striving and Pursuing Higher Degrees of Success in Earth System Science Professional Development Program (MS PHD'S), NASA Ambassadors Program, and the American Geophysical Union Voices for Science Program. She has also volunteered in outreach activities from the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, Society for Advancement of Chicano/Latino and Native Americans in Science, and American Society of Limnology and Oceanography Multicultural Program, Latinas Leading Tomorrow, CienciaPR, among others.
