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Biography

Maria is an environmental microbiologist and virologist specializing in molecular methods for studying diverse microbial communities. She focuses on assessing microbial and viral diversity, community changes following disturbances, and temporal/spatial comparisons. 

In her current role as a Senior Research Associate at the Microbial Markets and Geomicrobiology group at the Áù¾ÅÉ«ÌÃ, Maria serves as one of the technical leads for the Pan-Alberta wastewater monitoring program. Since 2020, she has been dedicated to testing, developing, and applying methods for extracting, quantifying and sequencing viruses from municipal wastewater.

Maria completed her PhD in Microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Dr. Rachel Whitaker’s Lab. She studied host-virus interactions in the hyperthermoacidophilic crenarchaeon Sulfolobus islandicus and how these interactions shape natural microbial populations. Following her PhD she worked at the DNA Sequencing Laboratory, W.M. Keck Center for Comparative and Functional Genomics at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

Maria received her MS in Microbiology at Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá D.C., Colombia) under the supervision of Dr. Jenny Dussán where she worked on evaluating methods to monitor hydrocarbon degrading microbial consortia in contaminated soils.