STEM Shoutout: Dr. Diana Northup

UNM professor receives grant from National Park Service

Visiting Associate Professor Diana Northup received a new award from the National Park Service of $10,953.04 for her project “Assessing Western Bat Hibernacula for the Presence of Pseudogymnoascus,” until the end of the year of 2017.

Dr. Northup works with colleagues from the Subsurface Life In Mineral Environments (SLIME) Team.

“[We] are investigating how microbes help form the colorful ferromanganese deposits that coat the walls of Lechuguilla and Spider Cave in Carlsbad Caverns National Park,” she said.

Through her lab, Dr. Northup also leads other research projects, such as microbial diversity in Cueva de las Sardinas in Tabasco, Mexico, as well as the potential for white-nose syndrome (WNS) to infect New Mexico bats.