Principal Investigator

Lydia M. Contreras, Ph.D.

• Associate Professor
• Laurence E. McMakin, Jr. Centennial Fellowship in Chemical Engineering

Affiliations

• Graduate Recruiting and Admissions Advisor
• Molecular Biophysics Portfolio Program
• Biochemistry Graduate Program
• Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology
• Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
• John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies
• Academic Research Member, Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC)
• Associate Editor, BMC Systems Biology
• Editorial Board, RNA Biology
• Editorial Board, Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology Journal
• Guest Editor, Methods Journal Edition on: Methods and Advances in RNA characterization and design
• Editorial Board, Mexican Journal of Biotechnology

Educational Qualifications

• Ph.D., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University (2008)
• B.S.E., Chemical Engineering, Princeton University (2003)
• NIH Postdoctoral Fellow (Infectious Diseases), Division of Developmental Genetics and Bioinformatics, Wadsworth Center-New York State Dept. of Health, Albany, NY (2008-2010)
• Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Biochemistry. Max F. Perutz Laboratories, Vienna, Austria (2010)

Recent Honors and Awards

• Elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) (2019)
• Mellichamp Emerging Leader Lecture (2018)
• Cornell Chemical Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award (2018)
• Biotechnology and Bioengineering Daniel I.C. Wang Award (2016)
• Teaching Excellence Award in Chemical Engineering, TAChE Award (2015)
• Society of Hispanic Professional Engineering (SHPE) Young Investigator Award (2015)
• Health and Environmental Institute (HEI) Walter E. Rosenblith New Investigator (2015-2018)
• Norman Hackerman Advanced Research Program (NHARP) Early Career Program (2014-2016)
• NSF CAREER Award (2013-2018)
• Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator (2013-2016)
• Warfield Center Faculty Teaching Award (2013)
• Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Young Investigator (2011-2013)
• Innovative Early-Career Frontiers of Engineering Educator (2011)
• Keystone Symposia Fellow on Molecular and Cellular Biology (2011-2012)
• Welch Foundation Research Award (2011)
• FASEB Postdoctoral Development and Enrichment Award (2009)
• Edna and William Hooey Award, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University (2007)
• NSF IGERT Fellowship in Mathematical Nonlinear Systems (2004)

Meet Dr. Contreras (Selected articles)

• 2013 Featured as a Research Spotlight by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular biology (ASMBM)
• 2018 Featured on KVUE (ABC Austin) news
• 2018 Featured on Finding Answers to water Contamination on Rio Grande on CONTEXERE: Weaving Stories of Research and Collaboration (Page 12)
• 2019 Featured on The Impact of Chemicals on Health on ImpactMania.com