Ana K. Celis 

Maintainers Impact Fellowship 2025

Archaeologist, Karst Lab México

Ana K. Celis is an Archaeologist working in the preservation of the natural and cultural heritage of caves in southern Mexico. In 2022, she founded Karst Lab Mexico, to provide local assistance to small-scale communities regarding the management and conservation of tourist caves. As a Maintainers Fellow, Ana will integrate the idea of rock formation repair into cave maintenance. This effort will focus on the mineral deposits called speleothems, which are constantly threatened by development and human activities. Ana has partnered with the Cave Formation Repair Project (CFRP), a U.S.-base movement originated in 1986, to foster repair practices in the caves of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. In August 2024, Ana became a Fulbright Scholar (Hubert H. Humphrey Program) hosted at UC Davis from where she is currently fostering international collaborations to advance the management and conservation of Mexican caves.

Impact Project: In the Yucatán Peninsula, cave formations are permanently being threatened by development and tourism activities. The word dzonot, is a Mayan word that describes a cavern filled with water, and has become familiar in the vocabulary around caves and the overall underground space. These places have become worldwide known for their scientific, cultural and aesthetic values. This project aims to create a community of practice around cave repair of mineral formations in Yucatán – which involves drilling holes in many of the broken formations to insert stainless steel all-threads which reinforce epoxied joints- while also building Karst Lab México’s capacity through a partnership with the Cave Formation Repair Project, culminating in a co-organized Speleothem Repair Workshop in March 2025.

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