Danilo Perez Jr
- Program Year: 3
- Academic Institution: New York University
- Field of Study: Neural Science
- Academic Advisor: Christine Constantinople
- Practicum(s): Practicum Not Yet Completed
- 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 Bachelor’s 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
F Cruz-Lopez*, DT Perez-Rivera*, JE Villafane-Delgado, M Robles-Fontan, J Zavala-Gonzalez, L Gonzalez-Feliciano. A model for national disease surveillance: the Municipal Case Investigation and Contact Tracing System for COVID-19 in Puerto Rico (In preparation)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).
British Council and NASA 3rd FameLab USA Final - 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 - 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
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 - 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
2022 Special Gordon Bell Prize in COVID-19 Research2022 National Diversity in STEM Conference - Keynote Panelist
2019 Carolina Neurostimulation Conference Travel Award
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
6/2019
First Finalist - Chemistry Student of the Year
College of Chemists of Puerto Rico
8/2017
2016 Winter School on Quantitative Systems Biology
International Center for Theoretical Physics
11/2016
Southern-Summer School on Mathematical Biology Invitation
South American Institute for Fundamental Research
11/2016
Chemistry Student of the Year
College of Chemists of Puerto Rico
8/2016
Puerto Rico Space Grant Fellowship (Renewed)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
8/2016
UPR Cayey Certificate of Scholarship
Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement
8/2016
Outstanding Presentation – 2016 Techno-Chem Symposium
American Chemical Society UP