Student Information
Graduate Student
Microbiology
The College of Lib Arts & Sci
Long Bio
Kiara Nicole D. Rodriguez is a Fulbright Foreign Student Program scholar and a PhD student in Microbiology at Arizona State University's School of Life Sciences, specializing in microbial ecology. She is an Assistant Professor in the Microbiology Unit at the University of the Philippines Manila (currently on study leave) and has been teaching core microbiology and biology courses to undergraduate and graduate students since 2022.
Her research background includes a Master's degree in Microbiology focused on hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria from oil-contaminated coastal sediments in Guimaras, Philippines, for which she received the Young Researcher's Grant Award from the Philippine Society for Microbiology. Additionally, she has contributed to research investigating antimicrobial resistance patterns in tertiary hospital wastewater in the Philippines.
In the Cadillo Lab, under the supervision of Dr. Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz, Kiara will conduct integrated laboratory and field research on tropical peatland microbial ecology, including intensive fieldwork in the Amazon.
Education
- MS Microbiology (minor in Genetics), University of the Philippines Los Baños, 2022
- BS Biology, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, 2016