Maribel Clerk

Maribel Clerk was born in Mexico and moved to the United States at a young age. She began working during her high school years and continued to do so through her college experience. An untraditional student, she attended community college until she was able to transfer to California State University, San Marcos, where she became a first-generation college graduate. As an undergraduate, Maribel was involved in several outreach events. Coming from an economically disadvantaged household and having no support navigating the school system in the United States, she places a high value on making science accessible to more diverse groups of people.

During her time in community college, Maribel participated in two summers REU programs. Both were conducted under the mentorship of Dr Peter Iovine at the University of San Diego. Her first summer she worked on the borylation of starch with a long-term goal of being utilized for boron neutron capture therapy. The project evolved into the optimization of starch functionalization using activated esters. The following summer her work involved the design and synthesis of potential chemical penetration/permeation enhancers, CPEs, from terpenes. The work emphasized greener techniques and more sustainable materials. After bringing up a small sample of compounds, Maribel participated in developing an efficacy assay to be used at a later date due to program timing constraints. At the University of California, San Diego, UCSD, Maribel hopes to continue expanding her knowledge base of chemistry. Her primary interests in the field are in organic synthesis as well as polymers and materials science. Her goal in achieving a doctorate in chemistry is fueled by a desire to reach out to and empower students who, like herself, come from disadvantaged positions, and to expand the access minority, ESL, and untraditional students have to pursue careers in STEM disciplines.