Maria Alma Solis

Maria Alma Solis (born February 9, 1956) is an entomologist at the Systematic Entomology Laboratory (SEL) of the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Early life Maria Alma Solis was born on February 9, 1956, in Corpus Christi, Texas, and raised in Brownsville, Texas. She graduated from Brownsville High School in 1974. Solis began her studies at Texas Southmost College, then transferred to the University of Texas at Austin and majored in science education. She earned her master's degree in biological sciences with Larry Gilbert at UT Austin and her PhD in insect systematics at the Department of Entomology with Charles Mitter at University of Maryland at College Park. After completing her PhD in 1989, Solis was promoted to research entomologist with emphasis in snout moths, She was the first woman president of the Washington Biologists' Field Club.

Awards and honors Maria Alma Solis was elected a fellow of the Entomological Society of America in 2018. In 1991, she received a Certificate of Merit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for outstanding performance. While conducting fieldwork in Northern Mexico she assisted with development of an organismal program for the South Texas Engineering, Math, and Science program for high school students funded by National Aeronautical Space Administration in collaboration with the Gorgas Science Foundation.