The B.E.E.S. group believes in the motto "people do science". This means we put people first and believe that research advances best in an environment of support and encouragement. Meet the team below:
Dr. Vianey Leos Barajas (she/her/ella)
I am an Assistant Professor, cross-appointed between the Department of Statistical Sciences (51%) and School of the Environment (49%) at the University of Toronto. I am primarily interested in working in the areas of ecological statistics, time series modeling, Bayesian statistics and, more recently, spatial modeling of environmental data.
I am also currently a faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute and a faculty member of the Centre for Global Change Science at the University of Toronto.
Collaborative projects bring me loads of joy. So, while I am formally trained in mathematics and statistics, I’m likely to be working closely with ecologists (esp. those who work with sharks) often and on many projects.
PhD Students
Sofia Ruiz Suarez
Sofia is a fifth-year PhD student in Statistics at the National University of Rosario in Argentina.
Research Interests: hidden Markov models, time series, point processes
Co-supervisor: Juan Manuel Morales
Robert Zimmerman
Robert is a fourth-year PhD student in Statistical Sciences at the University of Toronto.
Research Interests: Bayesian computation, probability theory, extreme value theory, mathematical finance
Co-supervisor: Radu Craiu
Yunyi Shen
Yunyi will be a first-year PhD student in Statistical Sciences at the University of Toronto.
Website: https://yunyishen.ml
Student Researchers
PhD Students:
Juan Pablo Diaz Martinez
Project: A Continuous-Time Movement Model for Acoustic Telemetry Data
PhD candidate in Health Services Research
Website: https://juandiazmart.com
Undergraduate Students:
Jessica Long
Project: Multi-scale modeling of time series data for classification of shark behavior
Major: Mathematics, Statistical Sciences
Recipient of NSERC USRA + SURA award by Department of Statistical Sciences
Simone Collier
Project: Modeling the interaction between behavior and thermoregulation in lizards
Major: Mathematics, Environmental Sciences
Internship through the Centre for Global Change Science
Sophie Berkowitz
Project: Modeling the interaction between behavior and thermoregulation in lizards
Major: Environmental Sciences
Partial scholarship through School of Environment
Vinky Wang
Project: A spatio-temporal point process model to identify the drivers of leopard shark aggregation
Major: Statistical Sciences
Yun-Hsiang Chan
Project: Modeling basketball movement data with hidden Markov models.
Major: Statistical Sciences, Computer Science
Recipient of SURA award by Department of Statistical Sciences.