Citlali Nieves Lira has been named one of our Winter 2021 Undergraduates of the Quarter and we couldn’t be prouder.
Citlali grew up near the Mexican desert, in the middle of Queretaro. When she was 14 or 15, she moved to Tigard with her father. It was a big change for her, going from the desert to the big forest. She graduated from Tigard High School, home of the Tigard Tigers. Citlali has always liked the state of Oregon. She enjoys that there are so many places to go and so many things to see. She knew she wanted to stay in state to go to college. Citlali reported that she’s a Ford Scholar, so it’s more financially beneficial to stay in Oregon, she also heard Oregon State had a strong STEM program. It was an easy decision at that point.
When Citlali was in high school she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. The plan in Mexico was that she wasn’t going to go to college because it’s very hard for women, especially, to get into school and find support there. It wasn’t until her family got to Oregon that she started thinking maybe she could actually go to college and get a degree. She wasn’t sure what that was until she had a chemistry class. She reports having an amazing teacher, who was able to relate Chemistry to everyday life. “Everything has a reason for happening, and because of chemistry we can explain it.” Citlali’s teacher told her about an internship program with the ASE. Her teacher helped her apply for it and she interviewed with OSU Professor Marilyn Rampersand Mackiewicz, and was awarded the internship. That amazing experience was what made Citlali fall in love with Materials chemistry. “I got to learn a lot about how to actually work in a lab, what a researcher did, what the obligations of a P.I. were, and I just fell in love with the lifestyle. I liked the work you had to put in. I liked the little puzzles chemistry brings every day, although sometimes it was really frustrating because I didn’t get the results or I didn’t get what I was looking for. But at the end of the day there’s always a solution, and there’s always a way to find one, and I really liked and enjoyed that. You can always complete the puzzle, it just takes a while to gather and assemble all the pieces. Besides learning so much about chemistry, I also learned so much about managing my time in the lab, working with others, and sharing ideas, I learned a lot from Dr. Mackiewicz.”
Citlali continued working with Dr. Mackiewicz when she started at OSU. She works with silver nanoparticles and is tuning the shape and size of them. So, they make different shapes of nanoparticles: triangles, spheres, cubes, rods, and different things that could be used for more applications in chemistry.
After graduation, Citlali wants to attend graduate school for inorganic Chemistry, start working at a university and become a PI of her own lab. Her back-up plan is to work in industry, as long as her chemistry topic is fun.
Outside of school, Citlali plays tennis. She admits she’s not that good, but she loves the sport all the same. She also spends a lot of time on the Equity, Justice and Inclusion committee for the chemistry department, working to make the department more inclusive to under-represented students. She also enjoys hanging out with her friends and watching movies. Her favorite book is 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Her favorite food is Sushi.
When asked if there was anything else Citlali thought we should know, she said, “I would like to add that OSU is a pretty great community. There are many resources for people to get help and get to the place they want to be. I had a lot of help getting to school, with people advising me and telling me what to do. If you can just reach out to people that would be great, and also creates a community. Especially for all of my girls in STEM, it can be hard, and we all have got to stick together.”
We are incredibly proud of our students, and especially of Citlali for being an Undergraduate of the Quarter, and we wish her the best of luck with her future.
