Raina M. Maier is a Professor of Environmental Microbiology in the Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science at the University of Arizona and currently serves as the Associate Director of the University of Arizona NIEHS Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP). Dr. Maier received her undergraduate degree in Biology/Chemistry from the University of Minnesota, her Ph.D. in Microbiology from Rutgers University, and was a post-doctoral research associate in Biochemistry at Iowa State University.

Dr. Maier's research is interdisciplinary and is focused on developing a fundamental understanding of the biological factors and processes that influence the transport and fate of both microorganisms and chemical contaminants in the environment. The information gained from this research is used in the development of innovative remediation approaches which can be tested at a range of scales, from the pore-scale to the field-scale. Recent research has focused on the ability of bacteria to survive and metabolize in extremely oligotrophic environments. Dr. Maier is seeking patterns in the diversity and community structure of bacteria in a variety of oligotrophic environments including subsurface soils, Sonoran and Atacama Desert soils, cave environments, and desert mine tailings sites. Dr. Maier has over 90 scientific publications representing this body of work. She is also is the lead author on the widely-used textbook "Environmental Microbiology".