Maia Larios, Ph.D.

Dr. Maia Larios is Chair and Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of St. Thomas (UST) and is the recipient of the UST 2022 Teaching Excellence Award. She has also been nominated for the Piper Award, a Texas-wide higher education award. She teaches general biology to first-year college students, as well as upper division classes in Microbiology, Nucleic Acids, and Bioinformatics. Originally from Mexico City, she moved to the United States in 1989 to pursue her education, earning a BA in Biology from Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas. She moved to Houston in 1993 to do graduate studies, earning an MS in Biology and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Houston. Dr. Larios did postdoctoral work at Rice University and UH and joined the UST faculty in 2006. When she is not teaching, Dr. Larios enjoys traveling, cooking, reading and writing, doing science outreach in the community, and spending time with her family. She is the proud mother of four children.