Nathalia Vega Santiago is the recipient of a University Fellows Award, a prestigious fellowship offered only to the University of Arizona's highest-ranked incoming graduate students. The award provides an annual stipend, tuition scholarship, and health coverage, in addition to professional development and networking opportunities.

Nathalia completed a bachelor’s degree in natural sciences with a minor in mathematics from the University of Puerto Rico (Cayey) in June 2023. She began the PTYS doctoral program in August 2023. As an undergraduate, Nathalia was selected as a Diversity Scholar to attend the 2019 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SciTech event. She was the co-founder and vice president of the first astronomy association at her university. And Nathalia was nominated by her peers to serve as lead scientist for the development of a preliminary design review for a lunar orbiter as part of the NASA L’Space Mission Concept Academy. Nathalia’s undergraduate research included work at the Arecibo Observatory, where she used remote sensing data to characterize near-Earth asteroids.

As a graduate student at LPL, Nathalia is pursuing research interests in astrobiology and cosmochemistry with advisor Dante Lauretta.