I received my doctorate in ecology at Columbia University and have an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Duke University. My math background allows me to work on a broad diversity of topics within ecology. A few of my favorite projects have been my work on rumor spread models, how tropical vines impact trees and therefore carbon storage, and how the variation within species functions ecologically. The last topic formed the basis of my doctoral work, which combined field data, Bayesian statistics, and mathematical modeling.
Currently, I’m thinking about how we can integrate biodiversity into a long-term vision of planetary sustainability. Specifically, how do we translate the environmental impact of data centers into nature-positive solutions?
If any of these topics interest you, please reach out for a chat! My mathematician’s brain loves a collaboration! at eva.e.arroyo@gmail.com
I assume you scrolled to the bottom of the page because you wanted to know, why biodiversity? Well. I feel the climate catastrophe on a personal level. I have the great fortune of being a Costa Rican citizen, and so grew up with evidence of the glory of biodiversity. I spent much of my undergraduate using the A.B. Duke Fellowship to do fieldwork in some of the most biodiverse places in the world (above in the Cape of South Africa, for example), which cemented my goal as a scientist: to find natural laws of biodiversity that we can count on in a changing world. I also just really like probability and complex systems (math), which get cool use in ecology.
Or maybe you just wonder which scientists I nerd out over. To list a few: E.O. Wilson, Vladimir Arnold, and Stephen Hubbell. And of course, I’m most inspired by the mentors I’ve been fortunate to learn from: Maria Uriarte, Duncan Menge, Helene Muller-Landau, and Rick Durrett.