Life in the lab

Cristian presented a talk at the University of Arizona College of Information Science's Faculty Research Blitz. His talk covered models and packages within the lab including BARN, Clustering Cities, and Synthetic Populations vs. Climate Change. Watch the talk with the link below!

One of our lovely lab postdocs, Kristen Martinet spent the morning celebrating with fellow InfoSci members at the 2025 InfoSci halloween party. We love Kristen's costume and hope the other attendees had a blast!

Lab members, Paige Cherry and Eleanor Tuck graduated this past week with their bachelor degrees. This is a huge accomplishment and we are so proud of our team members, congratulations!

The Faculty Research Blitz is an annual event held by the College of Information Science. Cristian presented at this year's event covering the recent work of the Data Diversity Lab. View his talk using the link below!

Data Diversity Lab members met to take updated group photos!

The Data Diversity Lab recently had the privilege of welcoming President Garimella into our lab space to share our past, present, and future work. A variety of lab members were able to highlight their amazing work and it led to great conversations with President Garimella! Thank you for this opportunity! To read or see more about what was discussed, see photos above and the website linked below.

Dr. Román-Palacios was named 'Afro-Colombian' of the Year by the oldest newspaper in Colombia and Fundacion Color de Colombia. Dr. Román-Palacios gave a brief speech, in Spanish. You can check out the whole event in the link below.

Danielle Van Boxel (pictured in the very back left-hand corner) attended the Arizona Women's Symposium in Mathematics in Flagstaff, AZ. Danielle was a featured speaker in the conference and was also a research poster presenter. The AWSiM provides a forum for women to share information about their projects with each other and with community members.

The DDL was part of a grant project to secure funds for an ecological and biological representation of a unified landscape for terraformation and habitability. This grant was recently funded. We are so excited to be a part of this project and want to extend congratulations to not only our involved lab members, but everyone else involved!

A lab dinner was organized in Fall 2023 at Churrasco de Brasil, Tucson, AZ. In attendance are lab members from left to right: Daniela Valladolid, Cristian Román, Danielle Van Boxel, Yi Chien Lee, and Hector Garcia.

Our PI, Cristian Román-Palacios was asked to give a talk at the incredible Charles Darwin Foundation regarding macroevolution.

Our PI, Cristian was invited to present by Dr. Ole Seehausen for a lecture series on Aquatic Ecology and Evolution. Congrats Cristian!

Cristian received a much deserving recognition award for his research work at the University of Arizona!

On August 11th, our lab's PI, Cristian Román-Palacios, presented at ESA 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland, on the panel, "Breaking Barriers to Incorporating Phylogenetics in Ecology", with Jeremy Beaulieu and Laura Russo. Read more about the session panel with the link below!

The photo above is Cristian with the members of O’Meara Lab during his visit to University of Tennessee-Knoxville this past weekend (read more about the O'Meara Lab using the link below). The other photo included is Cristian’s talk regarding the lab and its recent work at UTK’s biology department. Read more: This past weekend Cristian, our PI got the chance to travel to the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UTK) for a seminar event. Cristian would like to thank PhD candidate, Alivia Nytko, and Dr. Brian O’Meara for hosting his travel to the Biology Department at UTK. It was an amazing visit overall with numerous positive conversations including those with Dr. Xingli Giam and Dr. Joe Bailey’s class, and with Dr. Mike Gilchrist surrounding applied math and large language models (LLMs).

While in Bogotá, Colombia, for the Colombian Congress of Evolutionary Biology (ColEvol), our PI, Cristian also hosted a workshop. Above are photos from this workshop, congratulations Cristian!

As a lab, we had mugs designed and made to give to members who exit the lab for other opportunities. We love them and we are so excited to give them to our much appreciated members!

A small game evening in the lab! Pizza, cinnamon dessert, games and fun was had!

This past weekend a small group of DDL lab members (Cristian, Kristen, Kiran, Delaney, and Kennedy) went up to Mount Lemmon to the scenic areas of Windy Point and Rose Canyon Lake. The group enjoyed a great morning together and had plenty of great conversations and laughs while enjoying Arizona's beautiful scenery.

A few of our lab members were able to attend a College of Information Science mixer full of great conversation and company.

Members, Cristian, Delaney, Kiran, and Kristen joined in on a hike this past Saturday evening!

While attending the Evolution conference in Athens, Georgia, lab members including Kristen (2nd from left), Delaney (3rd from left), and Cristian (3rd from right), went for a bonding team lunch within their busy conference schedule.

Lab members Kiran, Cristian, Kristen, and Eleanor went for lunch during the work day for a little team bonding!

The Data Diversity Lab had the honor to have selected members present talks at the 2025 Evolution Conference Conference. Kiran Basava presented her talk "Mapping animal cultures with the Animal Culture Database (ACDB)", Kristen Martinet presented her talk, "Adaptive radiations share similar species- and speciation-area relationships within island systems”, Delaney Scott-Martin presented her talk, "Comparative sister taxa approaches to understanding climate-related animal extinctions”, and last but not least, Cristian Román-Palacios presented his talk, "Lab Operations (LabOps) for computational research group in Ecology and Evolution”. Congratulations to all!

We recently invited friends and associates of the Data Diversity Lab to come hangout and talk about anything and everything! Thank you to everyone who came, we had so much fun!

Dr. Román-Palacios have a brief talk to high schoolers on his career path, research etc. In Spanish. Available to view below.

As a lab, we we decorated our door to show a little more about our members and what the lab is about. Each member chose their favorite Arizona species and cut out their footprints, these were then placed on the door to show that the animals were walking in and out of the door. This was a great way to bond as a lab and intersected well with our foundations in biology and ecology.

Dr. Kristen Martinet and Dr. Kiran Basava (postdocs at the lab) presented their research at the 6th annual Arizona Postdoctoral Research Conference. Dr. Martinet was selected as one of two Best Poster Presentation awardees. Congrats to both Kristen and Kiran for presenting!

This past week our lovely lab member Delaney Scott-Martin presented her recent work at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. Congratulations Delaney, you did great!

Our lovely lab member, Eleanor Tuck or Ellie is leaving the lab to pursue new opportunities and we are so excited for her and her future! To celebrate her time in the lab, a few members were able to join together for an ice cream trip!

Erika Kirkpatrick (front row, first on the left), MS in Data Science (capstone/VIP student in our lab), was awarded the Fall 2024 Graduate Teaching Award in the College of Information Science (UArizona). Congrats Erika!!

Dr. Román-Palacios attended and presented in the iSchool's Spring 2024 Faculty Research Blitz. The Blitz is a fast-paced series of presentations on the latest information-related research, apps publications and more.

Our PI, Cristian, hosted a lovely game night at his house inviting both current and former DDL members. The night was full of food, friends, and fun!

Yi Chien Lee (pictured) was in attendance of the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing in Orlando, Florida. GHC aims to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Career fairs, sessions and poster presentations were all main parts of the event.

Jhan proudly presented his first-ever poster at a conference during SICB 2025 (the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology), showcasing his research on physiological specialization in Anolis lizards across elevations in the Andes. The poster highlighted how thermal limits drive adaptive radiation and endemism in these Andean tropical lizards. He had the opportunity to engage with attendees, answer questions, and discuss the broader implications of his work. Jhan is grateful for the insightful conversations and the chance to share his passion for understanding evolutionary patterns in these fascinating reptiles.

Ian Estacio, a postdoc in the lab, presented his talk, "Predicting the emergent effects of human-environment interactions: Agent-based modeling for informing planning and management" at the CAMBIUM meeting on November 19th. Congratulations Ian!

One of our amazing postdocs, Ian, will soon be leaving to pursue another role in Tokyo! We are so excited for Ian and wanted to celebrate him and his accomplishments as a team so we did so with a very delicious lunch. Congratulations Ian, we are so proud and excited for you!

Dr. Román-Palacios was the keynote speaker at the 2023 Simposio Estudiantil at INECOL (Xalapa, Mexico) for the Climate Change component of the event. In the photo, organizers and two speakers.

Paige Cherry, an undergraduate student in the lab, represented the college of Information Science at a special meeting hosted by the Arizona Board of Regents. In her poster, Paige discussed a her perspectives a personal pipeline and representation in the information science world. She also got to highlight the progress of her assistance to Dr. Kiran Basava. Congrats Paige!

Kristen Martinet (front row, left), Postdoc in our lab celebrated the Halloween holiday by dressing up and getting together with other UA InfoSci members for the College of Information Science Halloween party.

Ani Chitransh (pictured) presented her MSc capstone research project at the iSchool's iShowcase event at the Marriot in the UA campus.

HM Abdul (pictured) presented his MSc capstone research project at the iSchool's iShowcase event at the Marriot in the UA campus.

Danielle Van Boxel (pictured) presenting her research at the iSchool's iShowcase event at the Marriot in the UA campus (Tucson, AZ). The iShowcase focuses on presenting interactive research and creative projects by iSchool's students.

Last month I gave a keynote at the Colombian Congress of Evolutionary Biology (ColEvol 2026), pulling together work from across the lab on phylogenetics, island speciation, extinction, and what evolution means for nature-based solutions. Thanks to the organizers for the invitation, and to the students, postdocs, and collaborators who did the work.

Attendees at the lab dinner organized in Fall 2022 at La Indita, Tucson, AZ. You will be able to recognize a handful of lab members (Danielle Van Boxel [from the left, second], Salena Torres [third], Cristian Román [fifth], Kyle Arechiga [seventh], Kyle Clemments [eight]), some of us with our significant others!

The Data Diversity Lab had many reasons to celebrate and decided to get together at Jojos to do so! These reasons included our plethora of new members - Julia Dias, Sarah Gonzalez-Coffin, and Daniel McNair - as well as one of our own celebrating a new position elsewhere, congratulations Kristen! Prior to dinner, the lab members also joined together to partake in some fun games. We are so excited to welcome our new members and are so excited to see where Kristen's new position takes her!

Her poster surrounded the historical biogeography of recently extinct animals. Congrats Delaney!

A few of our members were able to get together for some team bonding with a hike amongst the incredible environment of Tumamoc Hill located right in Tucson. From left to right, Kristen Martinet, Kiran Basava, Cristian Roman, Michael Nafis, Hector Garcia.

A few members of our lab joined together to take their lunch break for fun and conversation. From left to right, Kiran Basava, Kristen Martinet, Cristian Roman, and Yichao Zeng.

The iSchool organized a lab warming party get together at the end of the spring 2024 semester. Collaborators, iSchool staff, lab members friends and family all attended the event. We are thankful for everyone's efforts and warm welcome of the Data Diversity Lab ! :)

Available lab members joined in an Italian cuisine dinner at Locale Italiano, it was a great time with even better food (and desserts!). From left to right, Kiran Basava, Kristen Martinet, Paige Cherry, Kennedy Gezella, Cristian Roman, Ian Estacio, Yichao Zeng.

Two of our lab members, Sarah Gonzalez-Coffin and Cristian Román-Palacios attended the Lovejoy Center Retreat at the Synder Wildlife Refuge and Field School. Sarah is a postdoc part of the Tom Lovejoy Conservation Fellowship and we are so excited to see the things she will do!

Dr. Román-Palacios was interviewed very briefly by Dr. Katrina Mangin. In this podcast, he speaks about some of his research and touch upon some general and personal advice on science and academia.

Cristian Román-Palacios, our lab's PI, and lab members, Kiran Basava, Kristen Martinet, Yichao Zeng, and Ian Estacio, shared current research on the Animal culture database and conservation implications, consistency in breakpoints for species/area relationships, modeling speciation in co-phylogenies, and a NAS-based Collaboratory at the weekly CAMBIUM meeting.

Our amazing postdocs, Kristen and Kiran recently completed the CIRTL Postdoc Pathways Teaching Program. Following its completion, they each received these awesome medals! Congratulations to you both, we are so proud of you!

WISE, the Women in Science and Engineering program granted an opportunity for Cristian, our PI, and Kiran and Kristen, our Postdocs, to speak to UA undergrads. The program hosts one hour weekly meetings for development opportunities, one in which took place November 21, 2024, which was attended by mentioned members of the lab. In the above image, Kristen Martinet is sharing her expertise in the biodiversity and data science subject!

In order to properly celebrate being awarded our National Geographic Grant, our lab members indulged in a NatGeo themed cake. From left to right, Kristen Martinet, Eleanor Tuck, Cristian Roman.

Nick Dabagia an EEB student at the University of Arizona has been working with our PI, Cristian, on a rotation within his education. Nick recently presented their work on "climPortal: a user-friendly r package for accessing crucial, biologically relevant climatic data" at an EEB seminar, congrats to you both!

Dr. Román-Palacios attended the Urban Eco-Evol and Nature-based solution workshop hosted by Dr. Marina Alberti at the University of Washington.

Sara Cielaszyk, Hubert Kasprzycki, Eleanor Tuck and Paige Cherry focused their capstone project on the macroevolution of Galápagos Testudinids. They created a website and performed basic macroevolutionary analyses on recently published time-calibrated phylogenies! Swetha Kolloju also presented her capstone project (advised by Cristian Román and Sarah Bratt) on describing the structure of software use in phylogenetics. Congratulations to all, we love to recognize your hard work!

Paige is assisting on a comparative database of animal culture and behavior. Her poster consisted of a highlight of two selected papers on animal culture, focusing on their findings about animal behavior, social learning, and culturally significant actions. While presenting, Paige explains the authors' methods and how their work connects to the broader project. The ultimate goal is to create an open-access resource that combines data on animal cultures with existing ecological databases to enhance research and accessibility.

Dr. Román-Palacios presented his research on polyploidy at the Polyploidy webinar organized by Michael S. Barker. View this using the link below.

Kristen gave a talk covering the functionality of her R package SSARP (Species-/Speciation-Area Relationship Projector) at the SICB (Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology) conference in January 2025.

Dr. Román-Palacios help put together a fraction of the slides and discussion + recording on Biology, particularly focused on how to understand phylogenetic trees. In Spanish. You can view this using the link below.

Attending the rainbow graduation at UA, Dr. Román hoods Dr. Van Boxel. The rainbow graduation celebrates and provides personal recognition for the achievements of LGBTQ+ students at the University of Arizona.

Each week our team members partake in a collaborative lab meeting on various topics. Here are some recent images from the meetings!

Dr. Román-Palacios presented BarrioMap along with Mackenzie Waller (Assistant Professor, University of Arizona) and Ariana Cantu (Assistant Professor, University of Washington)

One of our amazing PhD students, Sarah Gonzales-Coffin, presented at a CAMBIUM talk today on developing the United State's Adaptation Hotspot Atlas. Depending on availability, our lab members each attended this talk rather than lab meeting this week. It was a great talk and we are very proud of your accomplishments!

Jiayue He (pictured 3rd from the left) attended the 2024 Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration conference. The SME Annual Conference & Expo is widely recognized as the most distinguished forum for the publication of multidisciplinary mining research.

A few of our members were able to get together for some team bonding with a hike amongst the slightly treacherous environment of Tanque Verde. They also enjoyed a great lunch afterwards! From left to right, Kristen Martinet, Kiran Basava, Delaney Scott-Martin, Kennedy Gezella, Ian Estacio, and Cristian Roman-Palacios behind the camera!

One of our lab members (Shih-Hsuan Lo) took professional level headshots and group photos for the Data Diversity Lab team of Spring 2024! Left to right. Front row: Tanisha Lochab, Ani Chitransh, Jiayue He, HM Abdul Fattah. Top row: Cristian Roman, Danielle Van Boxel, Hector Garcial, Shih-Hsuan Lo.

Dr. Wiens and Dr. Román-Palacios discuss our climate change paper with folks at the Climate Pod. '...Then, we are joined by the University of Arizona's Dr. John J. Wiens and Cristian Román-Palacios, who recently published a study that made headlines for its analysis on the potential extinction crisis looming if warming temperatures continue. They explain the major drivers behind extinction patterns and where plant and animal most likely to occur. View this podcast below.

Dr. Roman was a featured speaker for the 2024 NSURP cohort. The NSURP is a community-driven initiative that creates rewarding, remote summer research experiences for underrepresented minoritized undergraduate students in Microbiology, Immunology, Cancer Biology, and Biomedical Engineering.

Dr. Román-Palacios presented at UCLA's Geocheminar seminar on Thursday Jan 23, 2025. His talk, “Integrating Bayesian, machine learning, and collaborative computing methods for geochemistry and other applications”, focused on discussing Hector Garcia's contributions to LabOPS, Dr. Van Boxel (BARN), Ani Chitransh (Bayesian regressions in python), as well as his own work related on clumped isotope datasets.

Our PI, Cristian attended the UN-COP16 in Colombia along with Dr. Rachel Gallery and Dr. Jessie Golding from the University of Arizona.

Dr. Román-Palacios gave a talk on his PhD research at Universidad del Quindío, Colombia.

Dr. Román-Palacios gave a talk on his PhD research at Universidad del Valle, Colombia.

Dr. Román-Palacios gave a talk on his PhD research at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia.

Multiple lab members were able to present at the Women in Data Science Conference about a variety of projects and ideas. Congratulations all!

Dr. Román-Palacios presented along with members of Esperanza Community Housing on 'GIS and community health'.