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IOWA STATE CHEMICAL ENGINEERING GRAD STUDENT NAMED TO PRESTIGIOUS NIH FELLOWSHIP
 

Maria Torres, a doctoral student in chemical engineering at Iowa State University, has been awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein Fellowship for minority students by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The fellowship, which provides up to five years of support, is designed to enhance the racial and ethnic diversity of the biomedical, behavioral, and health services research labor force in the United States.

Sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, Torres’ fellowship will support her research at Iowa State on novel amphiphilic polyanhydrides for vaccine delivery under the joint supervision of Professor Surya K. Mallapragada and Associate Professor Balaji Narasimhan, both of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Her interest in combating cancer, Torres says, arose from her personal experience well before coming to Iowa State.

“Cancer is a disease that affects everybody, regardless of their age, culture, or previous good health,” Torres observes. “My family and close friends have experienced this terrible disease, so when I started looking for research opportunities as an undergraduate, the only area I wanted to work in was cancer research.”

A native of Ponce, Puerto Rico, Torres received a joint BS in chemistry and chemical engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez (UPRM) in 2003. Slated to be the first Puerto Rican native to graduate with a PhD in chemical engineering from Iowa State, Torres has been instrumental in helping to recruit three other graduate students from UPRM to Ames, one in the master’s and two in the PhD program. Through her efforts, CBE has brought more diversity to its graduate student body, as well as pursued other teaching and research collaborations that have benefited both Iowa State and UPRM.

For Torres, the Kirschstein Fellowship is just the latest accomplishment in the career of a young chemical engineer who, in her own words, “wasn’t even sure I wanted to go to grad school” after earning her bachelor’s degree. Since then, she has published her work in a refereed journal and given several presentations at leading conferences in her field, including a poster presentation in Vienna this summer at the 33rd annual meeting of the Controlled Release Society, a professional organization affiliated with pharmaceutical research and production.

“Maria has been an outstanding performer in her graduate studies,” says Narasimhan. “She has also been a wonderful ambassador for Iowa State and has helped the CBE department establish a recruitment pipeline with UPRM.”