Danilo Perez Jr

  • Program Year: 4
  • Academic Institution: New York University
  • Field of Study: Neural Science
  • Academic Advisor: Christine Constantinople
  • Practicum(s):
    Argonne National Laboratory (2022)
  • Degree(s):
    B.Sc. Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico at Cayey, 2017

Summary of Research

I am a Puerto Rican student-scientist unraveling networks: mostly neurons, sometimes people. I am particularly interested in the construction of theoretical frameworks through which the intricacies of neural circuits, cognitive development, and decision-making can be causally linked to pathological outcomes in mental health. While completing my Bachelors degree in Chemistry, I spent several years pursuing research opportunities from Computational Biology to Astrochemistry. Over time, I became more fascinated with the heuristics and biases that underlie human behavior. This problem goes beyond the confines of the brain with sociocultural aspects impacting the human nervous system to dictate at times collective dynamics. My research interests have converged and diverged from the ends of chemistry to the depths of mathematics and the complexity of biology. At the end of the day, no one cares if you're a chemist, a mathematician, a biologist, or whatever you may claim to be. We work together to solve problems. That's what we really care about.

Publications

Fabiola Cruz Lopez, Danilo T. Perez Rivera, Joshua Villafane Delgado, Monica Robles Fontan, Jose Zavala Gonzalez, and Lorenzo Gonzalez Feliciano, 2024:
Ensuring Community Engagement in Disease Surveillance: The Municipal Case Investigation and Contact Tracing System for COVID-19 in Puerto Rico
American Journal of Public Health 114, S96_S102, https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307493


M Zvyagin, A Brace, K Hippe, ..., (9th) Danilo Perez-Rivera, ..., Rick Stevens, Anima Anandkumar, Venkatram Vishwanath, Arvind Ramanathan (34th). GenSLMs: Genome-scale language models reveal SARS-CoV-2 evolutionary dynamics.
(Pre-Print) bioRxiv 2022.10.10.511571; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.10.511571


JE Villafane-Delgado, F Cruz-Lopez, W de Jesus-Alvarez, M Robles-Fontan, DT Perez-Rivera, L Gonzalez-Feliciano. The Road to Data-Driven Public Health Emergency Response in the Overseas Territory of Puerto Rico. IGI Global. 10.4018/978-1-6684-5499-2.ch011


Perez-Rivera, D.T., Torres-Lugo, C. and Santos-Lozada, A.R.; Engaging for Puerto Rico: #RickyRenuncia (and #RickySeQueda) during El Verano del 19 and digital identities. Https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/wdk9u/ (Pre-print: August 2019)

Perez-Rivera, D.T., Torres-Torres, V.L., Torres-Colon, A.E. and Cruz-Aponte, M.; Development of a Computational Model of Glucose Toxicity in the Progression of Diabetes Mellitus. Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering (October 2016).

Presentations:

Computational and Systems Neuroscience Conference 2024, March 2024, Lisbon, Portugal
Hierarchical modeling of latent dynamics of subjective value over different timescales (Poster)
Danilo Trinidad Perez-Rivera, Shannon Schiereck, Christine Constantinople, Cristina Savin


Neuroscience 2023, November 2023, Washington DC, USA
Network Computations: Data Analytics and Statistics Poster Session
Constructing a hierarchical Kalman filter for extraction of adaptive neural population dynamics
*D. PÉREZ-RIVERA1, S. SCHIERECK2, C. M. CONSTANTINOPLE3, C. SAVIN3;
1New York Univ. Ctr. For Neural Sci., New York, NY; 2New York Univ., 3Ctr. for Neural Sci., New York Univ., New York, NY

Neuroscience 2023
Diversity Poster Session
Machine learning-driven multiscale modelling of genomic evolution of SARS-CoV-2

Third Year Talks - Center for Neural Science, New York University - November 2023
Constructing a hierarchical Kalman filter for extraction of adaptive neural population dynamics
*D. PÉREZ-RIVERA1, S. SCHIERECK2, C. M. CONSTANTINOPLE3, C. SAVIN3;
1New York Univ. Ctr. For Neural Sci., New York, NY; 2New York Univ., 3Ctr. for Neural Sci., New York Univ., New York, NY


DOE CSGF Program Review 2023: Constructing a hierarchical Kalman filter for extraction of adaptive neural population dynamics

SACNAS: National Diversity in STEM Conference 2022: Keynote Panel - What does Ciencia Boricua mean to you?

DOE CSGF Program Review 2022: Machine learning-driven multiscale modelling of genomic evolution of SARS-CoV-2
Danilo Perez-Rivera, M Zvyagin, A Brace, K Hippe, Arvind Ramanathan

British Council and NASA 3rd FameLab USA Final - Washington DC, USA May 13th, 2016
Danilo T. Perez Rivera and Juan M. Lopez-Encarnacion at Carnegie Institution for Science
Titan & Why We Are All Problem-Solvers.

2016 BBB Regional Conference - Ponce, PR April 2nd, 2016
Danilo T. Perez Rivera and Cranos Williams at Caribbean Regional BBB
Understanding tissue patterning generation during seedpod development in Arabidopsis thaliana using Agent Based Modeling (ABM).

35th PRISM and 49th ACS-Junior Technical Meeting - March 14th, 2015
Danilo T. Perez Rivera and Maytee Cruz-Aponte at University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus.
Development of a Computational Model of Glucose Toxicity in the Progression of Diabetes Mellitus.


32nd International Congress of Psychology, July 19th-24th, 2019 (SUSPENDED THEN CANCELLED FOR COVID-19 PANDEMIC)
Danilo T. Perez Rivera at Prague, Czech Republic.
Sensitization of Social Media Response to Impending Natural Disasters by Previous Exposure.

21st Puerto Rico Neuroscience Conference - December 7th, 2019
Danilo T. Perez Rivera and Amaya Miquelajauregui, PhD at Universidad Central del Caribe
Alpha band maturation in infants at risk for Autism-Spectrum Disorder.

2019 Carolina Neurostimulation Conference - June 6th, 2019
Danilo T. Perez Rivera and Amaya Miquelajauregui, PhD at UNC - Chapel Hill
Methodological aspects of fNIRS acquisition during cognitive and motor tasks.

48th Meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences - October 20th, 2016
Danilo T. Perez Rivera and Juan M. Lopez-Encarnacion, PhD at American Astronomical Society
Reaction Profiles and Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Cyanide Radical Reactions Relevant to Titan's Atmosphere.

2016 NASA PRSGC Annual External Advisory Board Meeting - January 22nd, 2016
Danilo T. Perez Rivera and Juan M. Lopez-Encarnacion at University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras
Reaction Mechanisms of Nitrile Synthesis in Titan's Atmosphere: A DFT Study.

2015 SACNAS National Conference - Washington DC, USA October 30th, 2015
Danilo T. Perez Rivera, Veronica L. Torres Torres, Abraham Torres, and Maytee Cruz-Aponte
Development of a Computational Model of Glucose Toxicity in the Progression of Diabetes Mellitus.

Awards

2024
PR CEAL Adriana Pons Research Scholarship
2023
Neuroscience Scholars Program Associate
2022
Special Gordon Bell Prize in COVID-19 Research
National Diversity in STEM Conference - Keynote Panelist
2020
Graduate School of Artes & Sciences Dean's Fellowship (2020-2024)
McCracken Fellowship (2020-2025)
6/2019
2019 Carolina Neurostimulation Conference Travel Award
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

8/2017
First Finalist - Chemistry Student of the Year
College of Chemists of Puerto Rico

2016
2016 Winter School on Quantitative Systems Biology - International Center for Theoretical Physics
Southern-Summer School on Mathematical Biology Invitation - South American Institute for Fundamental Research
Chemistry Student of the Year - College of Chemists of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico Space Grant Fellowship (Renewed) - National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
UPR Cayey Certificate of Scholarship - Outstanding Presentation - Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement