Leadership

Our leadership is formed by students, postdocs, faculty and staff from campus.
If you would like to join us and participate, get in touch!

Officer Body

Osma Gomez, President & Event's Chair

ogomez12@umd.edu

Osma (she/her), a Southern California native, is a third-year PhD Chemistry Candidate in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department and a Dolphus E. Milligan Graduate Fellow. Her research focuses on synthesizing magnesium-based batteries. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry from California State University, Northridge (CSUN).  She is also passionate about student outreach, expanding educational opportunities for underrepresented students, and guiding them towards academic success.


Yanelyn Perez, Vice President & Treasurer

ytperez@umd.edu

Yanelyn (she/her) is a PhD student in the Biological Sciences program studying the benefits and costs of generalism in the plant parasite, anther smut. She looks forward to helping build up SACNAS as she had fond memories working with the organization during her undergrad and saw the positive impact it had on the community. She is excited to help create that sense of community at UMD.


Elizabeth Rojas, Secretary

erojas13@umd.edu

Katherine Pizano, National Liason

kpizano@umd.edu

Originally from Florida, Katherine is a second year graduate student in the biology department. Her research interests include studying neuropeptidergic modulation of retinorecipient circuits involved in circadian rhythms. Before coming to UMD, Katherine was a post baccalaureate student at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).


Katherine Armenta, Communication's Chair

karmenta@umd.edu



Faculty Advisors

Anahí Espíndola (she/ella)
anahiesp@umd.edu

Anahí is from Argentina, and is a first-generation Assistant Professor at the Department of Entomology of the University of Maryland, College Park. With her research group, she studies how the environment drives the ecology and evolution of plant-pollinator interactions, using genomic, ecological, and experimental approaches. Anahí studied Biology at the National University of Córdoba (Argentina) and at the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland), when she also received her Master's and PhD. She did two post-docs at the University of Idaho, funded by the Swiss and US National Science Foundations.

Efraín Rodríguez Espinoza (he/him)
efrain@umd.edu

Originally from West Texas, Efraín Rodríguez Espinoza is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Maryland, College Park. Efrain and his group study crystallography to establish structure-property relationships in inorganic materials, and his group heavily uses neutron diffraction techniques. He received his B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara. After his PhD, Efrain went to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for his National Research Council post-doctoral fellowship.