Briana Hauff Salas, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Plant Biology at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. She earned a bachelor of science in environmental studies with a concentration in ecosystems from Binghamton University in 2008, a masters of science in environmental science from Pace University in 2010, and a PhD in Integrative Biology, Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior from Michigan State University in 2015. She conducted postdoctoral research at UT Health San Antonio in the department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, and was an NIH IRACDA (K12) fellow at that time.

Dr. Salas' research interests are vast, but mainly focus on the resistance capacity of Symbiodinium spp. to the effects of climate change and anthropogenic stress. Symbiodinium spp. are a genetically diverse group of dinoflagellates that can form obligate symbioses with a number of marine species, including coral. Her research focuses on identifying mechanisms by which clades of coral-associated Symbiodinium spp. may be more resistant to anthropogenic stress than others. Other areas of interest have included/include Streptococcus pneumoniae vaccine development, impacts of glyphosate runoff on dinoflagellate algae, and coral disease.

Dr. Salas is married to her husband Dan since 2014, a US Navy veteran and current police officer. They have one son together born in 2018.

Twitter and instagram @brianasalasphd