Dr. Marilu Perez

Dr. Marilu Perez Garcia discovered her passion for chemistry at the College of Southern Idaho (CSI) and expanded her interests at Idaho State University through research in physical organic chemistry, physical chemistry, and microbiology. She received an American Chemical Society Scholar award, which supported a semester abroad at Paderborn University in Germany, where she began solid-state NMR research.

She earned her Ph.D. at Iowa State University, supported by the George Washington Carver Fellowship, focusing on the molecular structure of carbohydrates and plant cell walls using solid-state NMR and computational chemistry. After defending her doctorate in 2014, she spent ten years at Ames National Laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher and staff scientist with the Critical Materials Innovation Hub, studying metal ion–ligand interactions relevant to solvent extraction and critical materials.

In 2025, Dr. Perez Garcia returned to CSI as a faculty member, where she now teaches and hopes to continue her research in sustainable energy materials.