Remembering Mariel Vazquez, Beloved Mentor and Renowned Interdisciplinary Scholar
Mariel Vazquez, an internationally recognized applied mathematician who held a joint appointment as a professor in the Departments of Mathematics, and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics (MMG), passed away on July 5, 2026, at the age of 55. She is survived by her husband Javier Arsuaga, a professor of mathematics and molecular and cellular biology, and their children Eithne and Cedric Arsuaga-Vazquez, as well as her parents Maria Elena and Rolando Antonio Vazquez and a large extended family.
Known across campus for her dedication as a teacher and mentor, Vazquez was a distinguished scholar with an international reputation for her research, which lay at the intersection of molecular biology, mathematics, and polymer physics and which applied topological tools to the study of DNA architecture.