I work for the USDA-FS International Institute of Tropical Forestry (IITF) in San Juan, PR and collaborate with the University of Puerto Rico- Rio Piedras Herbarium (UPRRP). At the herbarium I help manage the bryophyte collection.
I'm also teaching the botany class at the UPRRP. Before this, I was a postdoc working with grooming behavior of fruit flies and worked as a microscopist at the UPR Institute of Neurobiology. |
Education
Ph.D. Southern Illinois University Carbondale IL (2015) Advisor: K. S. Renzaglia
M.S. University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez PR (2004) Advisor: I. Sastre-De Jesús
B.S. University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez PR (2000)
M.S. University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez PR (2004) Advisor: I. Sastre-De Jesús
B.S. University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez PR (2000)
Awards & Fellowships

2020 Monitoring the distribution, ecology and conservation status of Sphagnum in Puerto Rico. State and Private Forestry Grant, USDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry. San Juan, Puerto Rico.
2016 Maine IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) Fellowship and Nikon Fellowship to attend the Quantitative Fluorescence Microscopy course at MDI Biological Laboratory, Salisbury Cove, ME.
2014 SIU Sigma Xi Rose and Essie Padgett Award, conferred to an outstanding graduate student members in recognition of that individual's achievements in research.
2012 Doctoral Graduate Fellowship (DGF) at SIUC. The prestigious DGF is designed by SIUC for those nominees who show the greatest promise for scholarly and professional achievement in their respective disciplines at the doctoral level.
2012 Graduate Student Fellowship to attend the Joint Meeting of MOSS 2012 and 3rd International Symposium on Molecular Systematics of Bryophytes in New York City, NY
2010 William Sullivan Award from the ABLS awarded for a distinguished research article published in The Bryologist in 2009, for the paper entitled “A developmental sequence for paraphyses in Neckeropsis (Neckeraceae)”
2009 HEART Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education at SIUC
2002 Puerto Rico Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education from the Center of Resource for Science and Engineering University of Puerto Rico
2016 Maine IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) Fellowship and Nikon Fellowship to attend the Quantitative Fluorescence Microscopy course at MDI Biological Laboratory, Salisbury Cove, ME.
2014 SIU Sigma Xi Rose and Essie Padgett Award, conferred to an outstanding graduate student members in recognition of that individual's achievements in research.
2012 Doctoral Graduate Fellowship (DGF) at SIUC. The prestigious DGF is designed by SIUC for those nominees who show the greatest promise for scholarly and professional achievement in their respective disciplines at the doctoral level.
2012 Graduate Student Fellowship to attend the Joint Meeting of MOSS 2012 and 3rd International Symposium on Molecular Systematics of Bryophytes in New York City, NY
2010 William Sullivan Award from the ABLS awarded for a distinguished research article published in The Bryologist in 2009, for the paper entitled “A developmental sequence for paraphyses in Neckeropsis (Neckeraceae)”
2009 HEART Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education at SIUC
2002 Puerto Rico Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education from the Center of Resource for Science and Engineering University of Puerto Rico