I was born and raised in Central Mexico where I was trained in mathematics and statistics during my bachelor and master’s degree studies, respectively. I got my Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Kansas at Lawrence, KS. My doctoral research focused on the problem of estimating the fundamental niche of a species from presence data. In this field, I am interested in studying species’ ecological niches (the match of a species to a specific environmental condition), its relationship with the areas of distribution of species, and how these might change due to human impacts.

I am a postdoc at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa where I work under the supervision of Jake Ferguson on the statistical validation of sampling designs that account for imperfect detection of individuals to determine if these survey methods yield reliable estimates of population distribution and density.

I have broad research experience in statistical ecology and mathematical modeling for biology. You can read more about my research projects at the Research section, which includes a list of my publications.

I enjoy teaching and participating in outreach activities, activities that I’ve been practicing since I was an undergraduate student. Check out my blog to learn more about this,

Besides doing science, I love folding paper and creating beautiful geometric shapes of modular origami (check out this gallery and my blog posts). I also like dancing and exploring nature. I currently live in the island of O’ahu in Hawaii which you can explore through this gallery.