Maria Cristina Ferro de Carrasquilla (1947–2015) was a Colombian microbiologist and Leishmaniasis researcher who worked for more than forty years at the National Health Institute of Colombia.

[5][6] Ferro also worked with Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus and received the Emeritus Researcher award from the National Health Institute of Colombia in 2007.

[7] Ferro obtained a bachelor's degree in Microbiology at University of Los Andes in Bogota in 1969 and started working in the Entomology laboratory at the National Health Institute of Colombia, focusing on Leishmaniasis vectors with the entomologists Ernesto Osorno Mesa, Fenita Muñoz de Osorno, and Alberto Morales Alarcon.

[4] Ferro contributed with new sandfly species records in Colombia, increasing the knowledge on Phlebotominae geographical distribution, biology and genetics.

Additionally, Ferro isolated Leishmania species and new phlebotomines viruses, and investigated the incrimination, vectorial capacity, environmental anad ecological factors associated with Leishmaniasis transmission.