Research Interests:⦿ Phylogenomics, Evolution, Ecology, Metagenomics.Mentoring:⦿ GradAMP (Graduate Application Mentorship Program)⦿ ENLACE

⦿ Researched how seed longevity is influenced by ecological, geographical, and morphological factors in order to create predictive models that could help conservation seed banks preserve rare species.⦿ Created data pipelines that extracted information from a variety of online APIs and other sources.⦿ Tested and selected factors to be used in predictive modeling in a seed longevity that used RNA decay as a method of predicting germination rates in seed banks.⦿ Participated in seed… Show more ⦿ Researched how seed longevity is influenced by ecological, geographical, and morphological factors in order to create predictive models that could help conservation seed banks preserve rare species.⦿ Created data pipelines that extracted information from a variety of online APIs and other sources.⦿ Tested and selected factors to be used in predictive modeling in a seed longevity that used RNA decay as a method of predicting germination rates in seed banks.⦿ Participated in seed collection and habitat restoration field work. Show less

Funded by the USDA to conduct and disseminate research relating to the evolution and conservation of flora with distributions that stretch across the US-Mexico border.⦿ Explored the subspecies delimitation of two California endemic Salvia species: S. pachyphylla and S. brandegeii, and researched their binational distribution in the U.S.-Mexico border region.⦿ Conducted field research, performed DNA extractions, PCR, and Sanger sequencing, in order to conduct phylogenetic and… Show more Funded by the USDA to conduct and disseminate research relating to the evolution and conservation of flora with distributions that stretch across the US-Mexico border.⦿ Explored the subspecies delimitation of two California endemic Salvia species: S. pachyphylla and S. brandegeii, and researched their binational distribution in the U.S.-Mexico border region.⦿ Conducted field research, performed DNA extractions, PCR, and Sanger sequencing, in order to conduct phylogenetic and population genetic analyses.⦿ Assessed the risk of extinction of rare and endemic plants and submitted them to be protected by the Mexican government. Show less

Funded by the NIH's Initiative for Maximizing Student Success (IMSD), an undergraduate research training program, to conduct and present phylogenetics research in preparation for Ph.D. program applications.⦿ Researched the role biogeography plays on the host-parasite coevolution of elasmobranchs and tapeworms through Bayesian ancestral host reconstruction and deep learning pipelines.⦿ Explored summary statistics of phylogenies in order to better implement machine learning… Show more Funded by the NIH's Initiative for Maximizing Student Success (IMSD), an undergraduate research training program, to conduct and present phylogenetics research in preparation for Ph.D. program applications.⦿ Researched the role biogeography plays on the host-parasite coevolution of elasmobranchs and tapeworms through Bayesian ancestral host reconstruction and deep learning pipelines.⦿ Explored summary statistics of phylogenies in order to better implement machine learning techniques in the field of phylogenetics.⦿ Presented research and results at conferences such as SACNAS NDiSTEM and SDSU Student Research Symposium. Show less

⦿ Created CLI applications to be used in phylogenetics research that computed distance matrices from DNA sequence alignments.⦿ Attended weekly meetings where peers would discuss their research, offer constructive criticism, and present scientific literature.⦿ Engaged in independent learning to further my understanding of probability, computer science, machine learning, Bayesian statistics, and evolutionary biology.