The Data Diversity Lab
At the University of Arizona
Welcome to our website! We conduct research at the intersection of ecology, evolution, software development, and data science.
Recent news
Stay updated on the latest happenings within the data diversity lab at the University of Arizona.
See all news
2024
Summer
- A new postdoc joins the lab! We welcome Kristen Martinet!
- Former PhD student in the lab, now Dr. Van Boxel had a paper published in Springer's Computational Statistics journal!
- An NSF-NRT (Research Traineeship) grant in which Dr. Román-Palacios will collaborate as personnel has been approved for funding!
- A new undergrad has joined the lab. We welcome Paige Cherry!
- Postdoc Ian Estacio has joined the lab. Welcome Ian!
- Two new papers where Dr. Roman collaborated in have been published in Ecology and Evolution and the ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences journals!
- Our postdoc Kiran started leading team collaboration data collection efforts for a project based on cultural behavior in animals
- Dr. Roman gave a talk to the 2024 student cohort of The National Summer Undergraduate Research Project!
- MD Nafis Ul Alam (Michael) just joined the lab as a co-advised (w/ Rod Wing) PhD student
Spring
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We congratulate our graduating lab members: Danielle Van Boxel, Ani Chitransh, Shih-Hsuan Lo, Jiayue He, Tom Olla, Rob Speer & Gloria Moraa Angwenyi! We will miss you. Keep in touch!
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All of our lab members got together to collaborate on potentially publishable materials during our organized lab retreat/workshop! Research, lunch and fun!
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HM Abdul and Ani Chitransh represented the Data Diversity Lab by presenting their capstone research in this semester's iShowcase event!
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PhD candidate Jhan C.Salazar flies from St. Louis to visit the lab for a week of collaboration! We welcome you back Jhan!
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Our first postdoc has joined the lab, we welcome Kiran Basava!
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Danielle defended her PhD dissertation and passed with flying colors! Congratulations Danielle!
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Our application to the Vertically Integrated Projects program was accepted and funded with a $3500 seed grant!
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We have a new lab website!!!
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Shih-Hsuan took professional headshot photos for the whole lab this semester. Thank you Shih-Hsuan.
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A research paper from the lab has been shortlisted for the 2023 Robert May Prize. The prize is awarded each year for the best paper in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution. Blog post: https://methodsblog.com/2024/03/20/early-career-research-increasing-access-reproducibility-and-transparency-in-phylogenetic-analyses-with-cristian-roman-palacioshttps-besjournals-onlinelibrary-wiley-com-doi-full-10-1111-2041-210x-1/.
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The lab has applied to the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) initiative and will aim to form a team of undergrads to introduce to research in Fall 2024
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Our lab space has become fully functional, we welcome all our lab members on campus to use our facilities as much as possible.
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A lab retreat is planned during the semester, will be discussing research and future work plans.
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We welcome our new lab members for the spring semester:
- Graduate students: Abdul HM Fattah, Shih-Hsuan Lo, Jiayue He, Ani Chitransh & Tom Olla .
- Research Data Support Specialist: Tanisha Lohchab.
2023
Fall
- Our lab members Ethan Davis and Yi Chien successfully graduated from UA. We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors and don’t forget to keep in touch!
- Daniela submitted her application to the NSF PRFB grant! Crossing fingers for you Daniela!
- The lab met at Churrasco de Brasil in Tucson for a semester dinner!
- The Data Diversity Lab will be represented by Danielle Van Boxel at this year's iSchool’s iShowcase presentation conference!
- Cristian attended the World Climate Research Programme Open Science conference in Rwanda, Africa!
- Yi Chien attended the Grace Hopper Celebration 2023 conference.
- Professional headshot photos for lab members are planned!
- A job ad has been placed for a GitHub Pages website developer!
- Cristian attended INECOL conference in Mexico.
- Provost Investment Fund grant application was submitted for potential funding.
- Daniela successfully defended her PhD thesis! Congrats Daniela!
- Daniela Valladolid-Garnica has been hired as a research data support specialist II!
- Yi Chien Lee has been hired as a Graduate Research Assistant!
- We have a lab space now! Complete remodeling and furnishing will be finished by the end of year!
- Hector Garcia-Verdugo has been hired as the lab’s manager!
Summer
- Jhan C. Salazar has been hired as a research data support specialist II!
- Darwood Martin and Katie Stringham joined the lab to work on a machine learning project relating local extinctions to climate change.
Spring
- Cristian accepted a Tenure Track faculty position at the School of Information!
- Seed grant funded: Mackenzie Waller and I received ~20k from CAPLA (College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture) at UA towards working on open access software for formal planning. The app is still under development and can be foung here.
- See grant funded: Chris Lim and I received ~50k for conducting research on the impacts of power outages on human health in the US.
- We’re hiring our first staff member for Fall 2023/Spring 2024!
- Danielle van Boxel, PhD candidate at the Applied Math department and who I co-advice, passed her COMPS and is moving forward with BARN/BARM!
- Lia Ossana, PhD at the School of Natural Resources, passed her COMPS!
- Reza Ehsani defended at the end of the semester, obtained his Ms in Data Science at the iSchool, and moved to San Francisco to start a Data Science position at Zipline.
- Laura Falk (got married yay!! and changed her last name) completed her MsC in Data Science at the iSchool and presented at the Santa Cruz River Research Days. Check out her capstone project here.