Mariel Vázquez facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mariel Vázquez
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| Born | 1971/1972 (age 53–54) |
| Nationality | Mexican |
| Alma mater | Florida State University |
| Known for | Research in DNA topology |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics, Biology |
| Institutions | University of California, Davis |
| Doctoral advisor | De Witt Sumners |
Mariel Vázquez (born 1971/1972) is a brilliant Mexican scientist. She uses mathematics to study biology, especially the shape and structure of DNA. This field is called DNA topology.
Professor Vázquez teaches at the University of California, Davis. She works in both the math department and the department that studies tiny living things like bacteria and genes.
Mariel Vázquez's Education
Mariel Vázquez has always loved learning. She earned her first degree in Mathematics in 1995. She studied at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Later, she went to Florida State University for her advanced degree. She earned her Ph.D. in mathematics in 2000. Her main research project was about how DNA gets tangled and untangled. This is important for how our bodies work.
Mariel Vázquez's Career
After getting her Ph.D., Mariel Vázquez became a researcher. From 2000 to 2005, she worked at the University of California, Berkeley. There, she studied how our bodies fix damaged DNA. This research helped us understand how cells repair themselves.
From 2005 to 2014, she was a professor at San Francisco State University. She taught math and continued her research. In 2014, she moved to the University of California, Davis. She joined the faculty as a special scholar.
Awards and Honors
Mariel Vázquez has received many important awards for her work. These awards show how much her research helps us understand DNA.
In 2011, she received an award from the National Science Foundation. This award helped her study how DNA untangles itself.
In 2012, she won the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. This is a very special award given by the President of the United States. She was the first person from San Francisco State University to receive it.
She also received a grant in 2013 from the National Institutes of Health. This grant helped her use computers to study how DNA knots and unknots.
In 2016, she won the Blackwell-Tapia prize. This award is given to mathematicians who do great research. It also honors those who help more people from diverse backgrounds get involved in mathematics.
In 2017, she was chosen as one of the first fellows of the Association for Women in Mathematics. This group supports women in math. In 2020, she became a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. This honor recognized her amazing research and her efforts to help underrepresented groups in math.
See also
In Spanish: Mariel Vázquez para niños
