I became seriously interested in wildlife at age 16 when I got my first hawk to train in the art of falconry. One year later, I joined a local club of birdwatchers, an event that changed my life forever. During my undergraduate years at Universidad Veracruzana (Mexico) I took every opportunity I could to go outdoors and learn about avian ecology. I worked as a field technician at Instituto de Ecologia (INECOL) for a couple of years. Then, I started my master's degree in Biological Sciences at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) as a member of Macroecology lab, under the supervision of Dr. Hector Arita Watanabe.
After that, I took a gap year to be completely devoted to falconry. In 2015, I moved to the Netherlands to start my PhD with Dr. Rampal Etienne. I had a terrific time during my PhD project, getting familiar with likelihood methods and simulation approaches. After graduating in 2019, I moved to Scotland to work with Dr. Justin Travis and Dr. Lesley Lancaster on the interface of ecology and evolution to tackle questions in biogeography. I have recently started my research group at the University of Galway as lecturer/assistant professor in Bioinformatics

I am mostly interested in exploring the processes driving the changes in accumulation and spatial distribution of species over time. In particular I look at how phylogenetic trees inform us about those processes. To answer some of my research questions, I develop the necessary computing tools. These approaches are based either on likelihood calculations or forward simulations. All realms of life are fascinating to me: my research interests includes birds, bats, palm trees, archeobacteria, butterflies, damselflies, amphipods, cichlids, and water beetles. I have a growing interest in building and programming electronics to collect data or tackle problems in our communities.

I will be teaching Introduction to Bioinformatics (MA3103)