Maria Cristina Villalobos is an American applied mathematician at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, where she is Myles and Sylvia Aaronson Endowed Professor of mathematics, associate dean of sciences, and director of the Center of Excellence in STEM Education.
[1] Her research interests include mathematical optimization, control theory, and their application to retinitis pigmentosa treatment and to antenna design.
Her dissertation, The Behavior of Newton's Method on Two Equivalent Systems from Linear and Nonlinear Programming, was supervised by Richard A.
[3][6] She was also the 2013 winner of the SACNAS Distinguished Undergraduate Institution Mentor Award of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science.
[7] She won the 2019 Richard A. Tapia Achievement Award for Scientific Scholarship, Civic Sciences, and Diversifying Computing.