Biosketch
I was born in Mexico City where I received all my pre-graduate education. I received my undergraduate degree from the College of Science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (U.N.A.M.) in 1997. While at U.N.A.M I was engaged as both an academic and an athlete. My academic career was supervised by Prof. Luis Briseno Aguirre, and had a special emphasis on probability theory. As an athlete I represented U.N.A.M both nationally and internationally. After I graduated, I started to do graduate work in mathematics at U.N.A.M. with Dr. Manuel Falconi at the School of Science and Mathematics in U.N.A.M. Soon after I was awarded with a fellowship from the U.N.A.M. Foundation based on academic merits. As part of the fellowship, I left U.N.A.M. the fall of 1997 to participate in a graduate exchange program with the Mathematics Department at the University of Arizona (U. of A.). A few months following my arrival at the department an invitation to join the Ph.D. program in mathematics was extended, which I graciously accepted; joining the program in the fall of 1998. My initial interest in graduate school was on dynamical systems. Dr. Joceline Lega agreed to supervise my program of study, which focused on the dynamics of molecular flux across membranes. While putting together the preliminary research to begin my dissertation, I realized my fascination with dynamical systems extended beyond the models to the systems themselves. Desiring a deeper understanding, and hoping to develop a more integrative program of study, I joined the laboratory of John Hildebrand in the Division of Neurobiology at the Arizona Research Laboratories, where I studied integration and network properties of the olfactory system in the moth Manduca Sexta. I joined the graduate program in physiological sciences at the U. of A in the fall of 2002. Having no formal background in the biological sciences, I spent two years in the classroom educating myself in the foundations of biology. Soon after finishing the requisite courses, I joined the Division of Neural Systems Memory (NSMA) and Aging to work with Dr. Bruce McNaughton. I used freely behaving animals to study the properties of dynamical systems that give rise to neural computations and natural behavior. My research program in NSMA focused on developing an understanding of context-sensitive responses in the neurons of the rat ventral tegemental area.
For my dissertation in Physiological Sciences, I had the priviledge of working with Dr. Andrew Fuglevand from the Physiology Department. My dissertation research was about the relationship between nearly coincident spiking and common excitatory synaptic input in motor neurons. I successfully defended my dissertation in Physiological Sciences in August of 2008. In parallel, I have worked with Dr. Joceline Lega from the Mathematics Department. Some of the results of the research I have done with Dr. Lega will be included in my dissertation in Mathematics. I expect to complete the Ph.D. requirements for a degree in Mathematics during the spring semester of 2009.
Thus, my work since I started my graduate carreer has had two components: modeling and analysis data from physiological phenomena at the cellular/molecular and network levels. My interests are centered on the dynamics of complex systems. A general goal of my research is to describe general principles governing the dynamical behavior of physiological systems.
General research Interests
- Modeling of nonlinear phenomena, with applications to physiology
- Dynamics of random networks
Past research
- Compartmental modeling of dendritic trees in the olfactory lobe of Manduca Sexta.
Current research
- Models of membrane excitability.
- Cellular and network properties of spinal motor neurons.
- Context dependent-responses of midbrain ventral tegmentum neurons during a spatially-reward task.
Professional Memberships
- Society for Neuroscience (SFN)
