University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras Campus
jessika.pazol@upr.edu
CV

Jessika Pazol-Ramos is a Ph.D. chemistry student and a research assistant at the Molecular Sciences Research Center at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus. She earned her bachelor’s degree (2004) in chemical engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez and her master’s degree (2010) in civil engineering through the Water Treatment Program at Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico at Hato Rey. As an undergraduate, she completed summer internships at Princeton University and the NASA Glenn Research Center. She worked for nearly 10 years in the pharmaceutical industry before making the decision to pursue a career in academia. She has served as a chemistry instructor at the National University at Rio Grande and a teacher assistant in the General Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras. Her research is focused on inhibiting bacterial endotoxins from pharmaceutical wastewater using embedded enzymes in a new membrane packing-density material. She has earned numerous honors as a member of the Civil Air Patrol, U.S. Air Force Auxiliary. Other memberships include Professional College of Engineers and Land Surveyors of Puerto Rico (CIAPR), American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and American Chemical Society (ACS). As a professor, she hopes to serve as a mentor and inspire young girls from underrepresented minority groups.

Research Interests

Water treatment research using enzymatic reactions