Marisol Juarez Rivera

Marisol Juarez Rivera is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of New Mexico (UNM), affiliated with the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Her research focuses on geobiology and astrobiology, particularly the preservation of microbial biosignatures in geological formations and their implications for life detection on other planets. She earned her Ph.D. in Geology from Arizona State University.

Current work involves studying benthic microbial communities in ice-covered Antarctic lakes and their response to climate change, using sedimentological, mineralogical, and petrographic methodologies. Her research integrates multi-scale data from outcrop to micro-scale analyses.

She is a first-generation scholar with expertise in carbonates and silicates diagenesis, and microbial fossilization processes. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges Earth science and astrobiology, aiming to advance understanding of life’s preservation on Earth and extraterrestrial environments.