Hydrology research has taken Monica Arienzo ’08 to coral reefs in the U.S. Virgin Islands, underwater caves in the Bahamas and ice cores in Antarctica and Greenland.

Several career twists and travels led to her current role as associate research professor in the Division of Hydrologic Sciences at the Desert Research Institute (DRI), a nonprofit research campus of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Arienzo credits the influence of F&M mentors for propelling her on a scientific path.

“Water is the future,” she recalled Dorothy Merritts and Robert Walter advising. Merritts is the Harry W. & Mary B. Huffnagle Professor of Geosciences; Walter is The Dr. Earl D. Stage & Mary E. Stage Professor of Geosciences.

“Water security is a good area of research. They planted that seed,” Arienzo says. Her primary focus is now on microplastics found in the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountain range between California and Nevada.

Monica Arienzo '08 on the Truckee River, which flows for 120 miles from the outlet of Lake Tahoe in California, into Nevada. (Photo credit: Jessi LeMay, DRI 2024)

Arienzo recently landed a one-year, $250,000 grant by the Department of Defense to investigate laundering and textile degradation as a possible source of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — dubbed “forever chemicals” — and microplastic pollution. The research will examine how clothing chemically treated to be flame-retardant as well as water and oil-repellent may contribute PFAS and microplastics to the environment.

An F&M connection helped initiate that grant research. Matthew Thurston ’08, divisional vice president of sustainability and community affairs at REI Co-op, provided funding as part of REI's mission to protect the outdoors.

“We hypothesized that dryers could be a source of plastics to the environment,” Arienzo said. Initial research revealed that dryers do in fact emit plastic fibers.

The Department of Defense grant enables the professor to build on her hypothesis and include students in future research. “Having that research experience was really formative for me in pursuing a career in science and in academia,” says Arienzo, who was a geoscience major at F&M.

"The best thing about going to a school like F&M is the hands-on mentoring that you get."

Monica Arienzo '08

“Monica was an exceptional research student as an undergraduate,” says Carol de Wet, Arienzo’s undergraduate adviser and the Dr. E. Paul & Frances H. Reiff Emerita Professor of Geosciences. “She did a summer research project with the Keck Geology Consortium studying coral distribution in modern reefs and wrote up her work as part of her senior thesis. Monica, however, wanted to do more, particularly to learn geochemical techniques using some of our top quality analytical instruments – so she did a second senior thesis!”

Arienzo went on to co-author a published scientific journal article based on that work. She earned a doctoral degree in marine geology and geophysics from the University of Miami.

“The best thing about going to a school like F&M is the hands-on mentoring that you get. My undergraduate mentor, Professor de Wet, helped me through the process of going to graduate school,” Arienzo said.

Arienzo now finds herself in the mentor role.

“Getting to see students develop into scientists, ask their own research questions and challenge me to learn new things – that's the most rewarding part of my career.”

Follow Arienzo’s research on Instagram: microplastic_monica