I am a post-doctoral research associate in Dr. Qilin Li’s lab, and I work in both the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Baker Institute for Public Policy’s Center for Energy Studies. My passion and my research is water, and I study issues related to water quality and quantity. In addition to developing improvements to desalination technologies, I explore the interactions between water and energy production in Texas.

A little more about me. I grew up in Texas, and during my undergraduate at Rice University, I learned the importance of water for small rural communities in Mexico. I went on to do my M.S. in Environmental Engineering, studying the antimicrobial effects of incorporating silver nanoparticles in membranes with Dr. Pedro J.J. Alvarez. I completed my Ph.D. at Yale University with Dr. Menachem Elimelech, where I continued to develop and study different antibiofouling membrane coatings, natural antimicrobial compounds and nanoparticles, and membrane biofilms. I am happy to have returned to Houston and Rice, where I will develop efficient, novel desalination technologies and study the connections between water and the oil and gas industry. In addition to water, I am also passionate about education, outreach, public health, and the environment.