Dr. Spies is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and holds secondary appointment in the Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Iowa CCOM. She is an Associate Director of Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing, and the PI on the NIH T32 predoctoral training grant in Biotechnology. 

Trained as a biophysicist at the Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (Russia), Maria Spies is a 2000 PhD graduate of Osaka University (Japan). After graduation she joined the lab of Steve Kowalczykowski at UC Davis where she was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow.

Her most notable accolades include Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist Award and Biophysical Society Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award. She was a finalist for Iowa Women of Innovation Award and was named University of Iowa Health Care Distinguished Scholar. She served as a permanent member, vice Chair and a Chair of the American Cancer Society DNA Mechanisms in Cancer Peer Review Panel, and currently chairs the NIH Macromolecular Structure and Function B study section. She is active in the Biophysical Society as a member of publications committee and was a chair of molecular Biophysics sub-group. Dr. Spies is an editorial board member of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and Nucleic Acids Research Journal. She is an Editor in Chief of the new journal in the Nucleic Acids Research family, NAR Molecular Medicine.