Mariana Federica Wolfner is a member of Cornell's Graduate Fields of Genetics, Genomics & Development, of Biochemistry, Molecular & Cell Biology, and of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. Her research is focused on understanding, at the molecular/gene level, the important reproductive processes that occur around the time when a sperm fertilizes an egg. Using the Drosophila model, the Wolfner laboratory studies the molecular signals that "activate" an oocyte to initiate embryo development and also the actions of seminal proteins that female flies receive from the males with which they mate. She has published over 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has served on a number of NIH study sections, including current membership on CMIR. She is on the Editorial Boards of several journals, including Genetics and Molecular Reproduction and Development, and she is or has been an Officer of the Genetics Society of America and the AAAS. She has been given numerous honors for her research endeavors, including a Junior Faculty Research Award from the American Cancer Society, a Career Advancement Award from the National Science Foundation, a Lady Davis Fellowship, and election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has also received awards from Cornell for teaching and advising (Stephen H. Weiss Fellow, Robert A. and Donna B. Paul Award, Stephen & Margory Russell Award, and Kendall Carpenter Award), and is a Hunter Rawlings faculty fellow at Cornell’s Alice Cook House.