Maria is a master’s student working with Dr. Michael Grammer. She grew up mostly around Houston, Texas and lived a couple years in Venezuela. Maria’s research interests include carbonate sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy, and carbonate reservoir characterization.

She obtained her B.S. in geology from The University of Texas at Austin in 2017. Maria’s undergraduate thesis focused on testing for evidence of ocean acidification in marine fossils and the timing of events across the latest Permian mass extinction. She served as the AAPG Longhorn Chapter secretary her junior and senior year and is currently the AAPG OSU Chapter treasurer. Her initial passion for carbonates sparked during a field trip to the Turks and Caicos where she studied the facies distribution of the Caicos Platform under the mentorship of Dr. Charlie Kerans.

Maria’s current research project focuses on reservoir characterization of the Bakken Formation within the Williston Basin. She intends on identifying major lithofacies within the Bakken Formation through core description and tying these observations to wire line log responses. She hopes to gain an understanding of the depositional environment of these mixed carbonate-siliciclastic systems and recognize sequence stratigraphic cycles within the formation. When Maria’s not in the lab studying and doing research, she enjoys hiking, traveling, and swimming.