Carolina Mendez: Future Goals Influence Innovative Research
NSF Graduate Fellowship recipient Carolina Mendez is using chemical and microbial analyses to investigate which residential roofing materials yield the best water quality
Helping developing countries gain access to a safe water supply is a deeply personal mission for Carolina Mendez. During a visit to her native Salvadoran community, she saw people bathing, washing clothes, and even drinking from a single contaminated stream. Those images are part of the fabric of her background and greatly influenced her decision to study water resources engineering in graduate school.
Carolina, an Environmental and Water Resources Engineering (EWRE) graduate student, was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, California. Her parents escaped the civil war in El Salvador in 1984 and she is the first in her family to graduate high school and attend a university.
In 2008, she received a Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her undergraduate coursework and research experiences at UCLA, UC-Berkeley, and MIT coupled with her desire to improve water conditions abroad, led Carolina to pursue a Ph.D. in environmental engineering with an emphasis on water research. She decided on the CAEE Department because of its multidisciplinary research offerings and exceptional ranking as a top five graduate school program. She was also drawn to the university because of its great location.
Her current research involves recommending roofing materials for the rainwater harvesting community in Texas. For this study, she surveyed roof contractors and determined which roofing materials are most commonly used in Texas. Based on the survey, she chose three different types of roofing materials and then built pilot-scale roofs at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center so that she can collect and analyze chemical and microbial constituents in the rainwater runoff. In addition, non-conventional roofs (i.e. green and cool roofs) are also being tested to determine whether or not they would serve as a better alternative for rainwater harvesting.
In March, Carolina received a highly desired 2009 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship for this research. The fellowship grants each student more than $40,000 annually for three years. Approximately 1,000 fellowships were awarded in the U.S. this year.
Pilot scale roofs constructed with traditional materials (i.e., asphalt fiberglass shingles, galvanized metal, concrete tiles) and alternative materials (i.e., green and cool roofs) were built for rainwater runoff collection.
She is grateful for the guidance of her down-to-earth advisor, Mary Jo Kirisits, and co-advisor, Kerry Kinney. She feels they have both positively influenced her growth as a research scientist and are helping her meet her goal of becoming intellectually and professionally strong.
“My studies will allow me to understand the fate and transport of pollutants in water and to improve physical, chemical, and/or biological treatment techniques,” she says. “I am driven to continue my education so that I can achieve my ultimate goal of being a professor who works on sustainable water projects in developing countries. I hope to serve as a role model to future Latina engineers and to improve economic and cultural diversity in engineering- and science-related fields.”
Outside of school, Carolina enjoys her adopted home of Austin and its many outdoor activities and varied music scenes. She likes to play tennis, hike or go out merengue dancing. She also treasures spending time with her three nieces and newborn nephew in Houston. “They are my biggest source of inspiration,” she says. “My hope is to one day see all four graduate from a four-year university.”