- Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs
- Paul D. and Betty Robertson Meek Centennial Professor in Chemical Engineering
Affiliations
- Molecular Biophysics Portfolio Program
- Biochemistry Graduate Program
- Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
- John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies
- Council Member, Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC)
- Steering Committee for the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS)
- Steering Committee for the Center for Environmental Health – CHEER (UT Dell Medical School)
- Senior Editor, mSystems
- Guest Editor, PNAS, issue on “RNA Oxidation”
- Guest Editor, Methods Journal Edition on: Methods and Advances in RNA Characterization and Design
- Editorial Committee, Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Educational Qualifications
- Ph.D., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University (2008)
- B.S.E., Chemical Engineering, Princeton University (2003)
- NIH Postdoctoral Fellow (Infectious Diseases), Division of Developmental Genetics and Bioinformatics, Wadsworth Center-New York State Dept. of Health, Albany, NY (2008-2010)
- Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Biochemistry. Max F. Perutz Laboratories, Vienna, Austria (2010)
Recent Honors and Awards
- 2023 Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology
- American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AICHE) Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Division Early Career Award (2021)
- Barbara McClintock Life Sciences Lecturer, Cornell University (2021)
- American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AICHE) Minority Faculty Affairs Committee (MAC) Gerry Lessells Award (2020)
- American Chemical Society (ACS) Biotechnology Division Young Investigator Award (2020)
- Elected to The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) (2019)
- Mellichamp Emerging Leader Lecture (2018)
- Cornell Chemical Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award (2018)
- Biotechnology and Bioengineering Daniel I.C. Wang Award (2016)
- Teaching Excellence Award in Chemical Engineering, TAChE Award (2015)
- Society of Hispanic Professional Engineering (SHPE) Young Investigator Award (2015)
- Health and Environmental Institute (HEI) Walter E. Rosenblith New Investigator (2015-2018)
- Norman Hackerman Advanced Research Program (NHARP) Early Career Program (2014-2016)
- NSF CAREER Award (2013-2018)
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator (2013-2016)
- Warfield Center Faculty Teaching Award (2013)
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Young Investigator (2011-2013)
- Innovative Early-Career Frontiers of Engineering Educator (2011)
- Keystone Symposia Fellow on Molecular and Cellular Biology (2011-2012)
- FASEB Postdoctoral Development and Enrichment Award (2009)
- Edna and William Hooey Award, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University (2007)
- NSF IGERT Fellowship in Mathematical Nonlinear Systems (2004)
Meet Dr. Contreras (Selected articles)
- 2013 Featured as a Research Spotlight by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular biology (ASMBM)
- 2018 Featured on KVUE (ABC Austin) news
- 2018 Featured on Finding Answers to water Contamination on Rio Grande on CONTEXERE: Weaving Stories of Research and Collaboration (Page 12)
- 2019 Featured on The Impact of Chemicals on Health on ImpactMania.com
- LatinXperts: Ep. 28 – What is the experience of being a woman of color in a STEM field?
- S. Wang, L. C. Marr, L. M. Contreras, F. J. Theis, and P. Nurse. “The challenges in finding your home as a multidisciplinary scientist.” Cell 185, 2623-2625 (2022). Available from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.06.044.
- G.C. Fleming, G. Hunt, D. Watson, M. Mastronardi, S. You, L. Contreras, M. Borrego, and M.J.T. Smith. “A New Hybrid Model for Faculty Hiring Workshops.” J STEM Edu: Innovations and Research, 24:1 (2023). Available from https://www.jstem.org/jstem/index.php/JSTEM/article/view/2601/2306.
