Name: Ana Martínez Fernández
Department: Earth and Planetary Sciences
What award/scholarship did you receive? Hammett Fellowship
What year are you (1st year, 3rd year)? Ph.D. student, 4th year
College: Graduate Division
Where do you call home? Madrid, Spain
With all of the choices for college, what made UC Santa Cruz stand out? The interesting research projects conducted on campus and the beautiful landscape.
What is your field of focus? Biogeochemistry.
What do you hope to do once you graduate from UC Santa Cruz? I would like to work in a project that allows me to use the laboratory and bionformatics skills I’ve learned to solve environmental and health problems.
What is one memorable moment that stands out for you as a student here? I feel grateful everytime I move around campus and I get to hike under impressive redwoods. Also, the views of Monterey bay when I go home after work are unbeateable.
How will this scholarship impact your academic life/research? It is harder to find funding as an international student, as most fellowships require being a U.S. citizen to apply. In addition, nonresident tuition is about double as California state resident tuition. This scholarship will allow me to work full time in the laboratory to finish the analyses needed to complete my research on the effects of ocean acidification on corals. We are hoping to identify coral species and populations resilient to the increase of anthropogenic atmospheric carbon dioxide through physiologic and transcriptomic analyses.
