Maia Hanson

Maia received a Hollings in 2014, and she worked in Woods Hole at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. She spent her internship studying micro-invertebrate samples collected from underwater vents. The goal of the project was to identify and categorize the types of organisms that have been collected at sea. Maia also wrote an award-winning Eco Team essay. "The Shop Girls," recalling her participation in creating a car to race in the international Sell Eco Marathon, a competition that challenges teams to create the most fuel-efficient cars. In addition to being a Hollings recipient, Maia was a fellow in Western's mathematics department where she tutored other students in calculus and linear algebra. She also was a Neuroscience lab assistant at Western in 2011 and a bioinformatics REU at Mississippi State in 2014 before her Hollings.