"People Do Science"*
*quote by Professor Willam A Lester, Jr, UC Berkeley
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We trust 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)
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 currently a faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute and a faculty member of the Centre for Global Change Science at the University of Toronto. Additionally, I am serving a 3-year term on the Stan Governing Body.
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.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Sofia Ruiz Suarez is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Toronto. She develops novel probabilistic ML & AI approaches for classification of videos from ecological systems.
Research Interests: Statistics, AI, machine learning, environmental and ecological sytems
Co-PI: Dak de Kerckhove
PhD Students
PhD Students
Arturo Esquivel is a third-year PhD student in Statistical Sciences at the University of Toronto.
Research Interests: Bayesian inference, spatio-temporal modeling, statistical computation, machine learning, applications in chemistry, health and astronomy
Data Sciences Institute Doctoral Student Fellow
Marco Gallegos Herrada is a third-year PhD student in Statistical Sciences at the University of Toronto.
Research Interests: Bayesian statistics, time series, Markov chain Monte Carlo, applied statistics, environmental & ecological statistics
Co-supervisor: Jeffrey Rosenthal
Yovna Junglee is a third-year PhD student in Statistical Sciences at the University of Toronto.
Research Interests: Bayesian inference, non-parametric and semi-parametric methods, spatio-temporal models, environmental & ecological statistics
Co-supervisor: Meredith Franklin
Rodrigo Barradas Herrera is a second-year PhD student in Statistical Sciences at the University of Toronto.
Research Interests: Machine learning
Co-supervisor: Gwendolyn Eadie
Former Students & Researchers
Former Students & Researchers
Postdoctoral Researchers
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Jessica Lievesley was a postdoctoral fellow in the Eric & Wendy Schmidt AI in Science program at the University of Toronto. She develops cutting edge ML & AI approaches for monitoring of ecological systems.
Co-PI: Dak de Kerckhove
Current position: Data Analyst for the Tampa Bay Rays.
PhD Students
PhD Students
Thesis: Advances in state-space models for the analysis of animal movement and behavior
University of Rosario, Argentina (Aug. 2022)
co-supervisor: Juan Morales
Undergraduate Student Researchers
Undergraduate Student Researchers
Boladé Amoussou
summer 2024
Project: High-dimensional visualizations for hydroacoustic data
Major: Computational Cognition, Mathematics
NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award Recipient
Sebastian Vidal-Waldron
summer 2024
Project: Tracking sharks using computer vision
Major: TBD
NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award Recipient
Zuva Gwata
summer 2023
Project: Computational Tools for Exploring Multimodal Posterior Distributions
Major: Acturial Science
NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award Recipient
Lauren Gill
summer 2022
Project: Data Science for White Shark Conservation
Major: Biology (UBC)
Summer Undergraduate Data Science Research Program Participant
Winner of Best Talk at Resesarch Day
Simone Collier
summer 2021
Project: Modeling the interaction between behavior and thermoregulation in lizards
Major: Mathematics, Environmental Sciences
Internship through the Centre for Global Change Science
Jessica Long
summer 2021
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
Sophie Berkowitz
summer 2021
Project: Modeling the interaction between behavior and thermoregulation in lizards
Major: Environmental Sciences
Partial scholarship through School of Environment
Vinky Wang
summer 2021
Project: Modeling Leopard Shark Aggregations Using Point Patterns and the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation
Major: Statistical Sciences
Yun-Hsiang Chan
summer 2021
Project: Modeling basketball movement data with hidden Markov models.
Major: Statistical Sciences, Computer Science
Recipient of SURA award by Department of Statistical Sciences.
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