Ms. Mayara Cizina has been awarded Boise State’s Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award, STEM division. Her thesis, titled “Optimizing Raman spectral collection for quartz and zircon crystals for elastic geothermobarometry” investigates the analytical stability of Raman microscopes. These instruments, and the data they collect, are central to a new method of calculating pressures from metamorphic rocks that form during continental collisions and subduction. After first discovering instability in instrumentation with major implications for pressure calculations and prior interpretations, Cizina developed methods for overcoming these instabilities and optimizing data collection. She will be nominated to the Western Association of Graduate Schools competition for distinguished MS thesis in STEM. Her work is in preparation for submission to American Mineralogist.
Congratulations, Maya!