Hi, I'm Myrine! 

(pronounced /mai-reen/)

I am an aspiring applied statistician and astrobiochemist. I have a keen interest in exploring how life began, evolved, and spread. My goal is to shed light on how life could arise on other planets, create methods to define it, and gain insight into why life exists at all.

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Mathematics and Statistics with Interdisciplinary Applications (Applied Statistics with Medical Applications) at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), and I'm graduating in 2026. I’m originally from McAllen, Texas, and have previously worked in Seoul, South Korea and will be working in Tokyo, Japan starting June 2024 as part of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) summer cohort.

I am proud to be a part of the Astrobiochemistry Lab at UTRGV under the guidance of Dr. Eloi Camprubi-Casas, which focuses on prebiotic chemistry – particularly on autocatalytic and pre-genetic evolutionary processes – and on chemical biosignatures for space exploration. I am proud to be a part of something new and inspiring. I like being challenged and am always looking for opportunities to meet new people!

If you would like to know more about me, visit my CV and Research pages! Get in touch with me at the Connect page!

I am always finding myself having to explain just how south I live in Texas and where UTRGV is located exactly. The UTRGV main campus is located in Edinburg, Texas, USA, about 95 miles north of the USA-Mexico border in Hidalgo County. We have a diverse population of students, 93% being of Hispanic ethnicity. This classifies UTRGV as a Hispanic Serving Institute (HSI).  

I enjoy speaking about my experience as a Hispanic woman in higher education and about culturally-relevant pedagogy --  both as a student and as an instructor.