Sarai M. Alvarez Zepeda (she/her) was borned and raised in Tijuana, Mexico. She obtained a B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology from San Diego State University. Before joining Oregon State University for graduate school, she worked as a research assistant investigating the regeneration of sensory neurons in freshwater planarians (Schmidtea mediterranea) at San Diego State University. Sarai is now a PhD student in Marine Science as part of the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Marine Science in the University of California, Santa Barbara. She works in Dr. Andrew Thurber’s lab where she studies bacterial and archaeal communities in methane seeps from samples collected in different years and looking at the change overtime in these communities. Sarai is interested in deep-sea biology, conservation of our oceans, and climate change. This is her first research cruise and she is excited to collaborate with all the scientists on board. 

Cruises: