Dr. Raina Maier Invited Speaker at 2024 SACANAS Conference

Dr. Raina Maier was an invited speaker at the 2024 Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans (SACNAS) Conference, at the Phoenix Convention Center on October 31, 2024. 

SACNAS is an inclusive organization dedicated to fostering the success of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans, from college students to professionals, in attaining advanced degrees, careers, and positions of leadership in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

The SACNAS National Annual Conference brings together thousands of ethnically underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, university professors and industrial scientists. This year, the Biophysical Society, in collaboration with the Committee for Inclusion and Diversity (CID), sponsored a SACNAS session focusing on Biology and Life under Extreme Conditions.

Dr. Raina Maier, UA SRC Associate Director, was an invited speaker at the session on “Life under Extreme Conditions”. This session provided a fascinating glimpse at how living organisms adapt to harsh environmental conditions and manage to support essential processes for life on earth.  In her talk, Dr. Maier explained how contamination of arid soils near mining sites creates extreme conditions preventing the growth of plants. Adding compost to these areas introduces beneficial microbes and increases the pH sufficiently to allow growth of native plants that have evolved to thrive under warm, dry, acidic conditions and do not accumulate metals into above biomass. Dr. Maier showed how this growth can be beneficial to reclaim these areas and prevent dust emission and soil erosion, providing overall benefits to the living communities on earth.

Congratulations Dr. Maier!