Arantxa, or Aran for short, is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Materials Science and NanoEngineering program. She was born and raised in Ecatepec, State of Mexico, Mexico. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Nanotechnology Engineering at the Universidad Politécnica del Valle de México in December 2024. Currently, she works under the supervision of Karen Lozano on polymeric nanofibers for wound healing applications and on the development of machine learning models to optimize their fabrication.

When not doing research, she enjoys swimming at the Rec Center, cooking Mexican dishes that remind her of home, singing and dancing, and learning dance styles from different cultures. Her favorite thing about Rice University is its welcoming and supportive community, as campus life is always surrounded by opportunities to meet new people. Aran looks forward to supporting incoming first-year students and helping them have a smooth transition into graduate school, just as other students did for her during her first year.