Mariel Vázquez Named 2024 ADVANCE Scholar Award Recipient
The Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and the Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Science (CAMPOS) are proud to announce Professor Mariel Vázquez, Ph.D. as the 2024 ADVANCE Scholar Award recipient.
This prestigious UC Davis award is given to mid-career and senior faculty at UC Davis who advance diverse perspectives and gender equity in STEMM through their teaching, research and service. The recipients receive a small cash award and deliver a distinguished campus lecture at the ADVANCE Award Symposium. The symposium honoring Professor Vázquez will be held on April 8, 2025 at the Student Community Center. Please visit the event webpage for more information.
Mariel Vázquez
Professor, department of mathematics
department of microbiology and molecular genetics
More on Vázquez
Professor Vázquez joined the University of California, Davis in 2014 with a joint appointment in the departments of mathematics and microbiology and molecular genetics. Her research in mathematical biology focuses on innovative topology, serving as her outreach platform to advance diversity in mathematics. Much of her service work focuses on inspiring and fostering the greater inclusion of women and students from underrepresented groups in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM) disciplines. She has earned several prestigious awards during her tenure at UC Davis as a recognition of her outstanding research contributions to the field of mathematical biology and representation in STEMM including election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to the American Mathematical Society, Chancellor's Achievement Award for Diversity and Community Honorary Service all in 2024. Her other awards include Inaugural Fellow to the Association for Women in Mathematics and the Blackwell Tapia Award.
Vázquez’s research focus
Professor Vázquez's research focus is the application of knot theory, a sub-branch of topology, to the study of DNA and its organization at scales ranging from simple viruses to the complex nuclei in human cells. This interdisciplinary area of DNA topology involves theoretical and experimental approaches with significant implications for our understanding of how DNA is organized and functionalized in transcription, replication, DNA repair, and recombination. Professor Vázquez’s research program combines theoretical concepts from pure mathematics with computational and modeling techniques, experimental data, and deep knowledge of biology and genetics, to derive novel biological insights with potential practical and medical applications.
Most of her service contributions have DEI advancement at their core. Notably, she has served as a representative of the College of Biological Sciences Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Committee, advisory board member of the Latino Cancer Health Equity Initiative at UC Davis Medical Center, and faculty director of UC Davis CAMPOS. She has served on numerous other professional committees, advisory boards, and panels. Vázquez is a member of three graduate groups: Applied Mathematics, Mathematics, and Integrative Genetics and Genomics. In her outreach activities, Professor Vázquez organized several national and international workshops, as well as developing a broad portfolio of public lectures, articles, videos, and podcasts, including one featured on the BBC.
“Over the last 10 years, Professor Vázquez has truly made a difference at UC Davis and as an institution, we would not be in the same place without her,” according to her colleagues, Wolf-Dietrich Heyer, a distinguished professor and chair in microbiology and molecular genetics, professor Neil Hunter, and Bruno Nachtergaele, distinguished professor and chair in mathematics.
Members of CAMPOS who work with Vázquez express similar sentiments. “Mariel provided the energy and vision for CAMPOS that is found in only the best leaders, and we cannot be more grateful for her time and commitment to our shared mission,” said Associate Vice Chancellor of Diversity, Luis G. Carvajal-Carmona.
Prior to joining UC Davis, Vázquez was on the faculty at San Francisco State University. She was an academic visitor in the biochemistry department at the University of Oxford, England in 2006 and 2007, and was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley in 2008. Vázquez was an academic visitor at the Cancer Research Center in Salamanca, Spain, and an academic visitor at the molecular biology department at the Center for Research and Development in Barcelona, Spain.
The ADVANCE Scholar Award program is selected from mid-career and senior Academic Senate or Academic Federation faculty with exceptional records of research activity and advance diverse perspectives and gender equity in STEMM through their teaching, research and service. The ADVANCE Scholar Award intends to encourage research, leadership, and outreach to underserved communities and mentorship of underrepresented students. It aims to highlight and celebrate the contributions that STEMM faculty at UC Davis have made to their fields.
Vázquez will be honored at the ADVANCE Award Symposium in spring 2025.
Learn more about the ADVANCE Scholar Award.