Former appointments

Education

PhD, Evolution and Ecology, The Ohio State University, USA (2013–2018)

Graduate Minor, Statistics, The Ohio State University, USA (2013–2018)

MSc, Environmental Biology, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico (2009–2011)

BSc, Biology, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Mexico (2003–2008)

Publications 

I have published 24 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 1 invited chapter in a book. According to Google Scholar (August 2026), my work has been cited 1470 times; my h-index is 15. 

Selected Academic Awards and Fellowships

Funding

 I have received a total of USD 297,529 in funding for Research (USD 61,564), Fellowships/Scholarships (USD 232,015), and Travel grants (USD 3,950). My funding agencies include the National Science Foundation in the USA (NSF), Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia in Mexico (CONACyT), Ohio Supercomputer Center in the USA (OSC), Academia Mexicana de Ciencias (AMC) and Santander Universia in Mexico, and Goethe University in Germany.

Teaching Experience  

Since 2017, I have been a teaching assistant or instructor of courses and workshops on Ecology and Evolution of Mammals, Comparative Genomics, Phylogeographic Methods, and Evolutionary Biology across several institutions, such as the Dept. Evolution Ecology and Organismal Biology at The Ohio State University (USA), the Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History in New York (USA), and the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main (Germany). 

Open-Source Software Development

Demographic model selection (R package): PHRAPL (phylogeographic model selection using approximated likelihood). Part of developer team in collaboration with Brian O’Meara, Nathan Jackson, Bryan Carstens at University Tennessee, in Knoxville and the Ohio State University in Columbus, USA.  Code available at: https://github.com/bomeara/phrapl, user manual: https://github.com/ariadnamorales/phrapl-manual.

Genome annotation tool (python-based) – TOGA: Tool to infer Orthologs from Genome Alignments. Part of the developer team at Michael Hiller’s research group at the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History, Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics & Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Code available at: https://github.com/hillerlab/TOGA.

Open Research Resources

BatLit – The Bat Literature Project. Contributor and co-author of an international initiative developing an open, versioned, multilingual, and citable digital archive of bat research literature and bibliographic metadata. The resource provides open access to more than 20,000 publications supporting bat taxonomy, ecology, and conservation. Resource available at: https://batlit.org/ Versioned dataset: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20287843

Fieldwork Research & Biorepository Contributions

I have conducted field research mainly in Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, and Peru, primarily involving bat population surveys and the collection of genomic-quality tissues and archived voucher specimens. This work has included collaborations with the American Museum of Natural History, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Museo de Historia Natural de Perú, and bat conservation programs and biological research stations across Latin America.

Academic Service

Since 2014, I have been a reviewer for more than 50 manuscripts submitted to journals such as Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (1), Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (2), BMC Ecology and Evolution (1), BMC Genomics (1), Canadian Journal of Zoology (2), Conservation Genetics (1), Diversity (1), Ecography (1), Evolution (2), Evolution and Ecology (2), Evolutionary Biology (1), Gene (1)Journal of Biogeography (1), Journal of Heredity (1), Journal of Mammalian Evolution (1), Journal of Mammalogy (4), Mammal Research (1), Molecular Biology and Evolution (3), Molecular Ecology (7), Molecular Ecology Resources (5), Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (2), Nature communications (1), PLOS ONE (3), Proceedings B (1), The Southwestern Naturalist (1), Systematic Biology (3).

I was on the Public Relations Committee of Graduate Women in Science (GWIS, 2018-2019). I have participated in reviewing committees such as the GWIS National Fellowship competition (2019), the Graduate Student Research Awards (GSRA) for the Society of Systematic Biology (2019), the Helen Fellowship Program at the American Museum of Natural History (2020), abstract reviewer for finalists to the Evolution Meeting, SSB Ernst Mayr Symposium (2023).

Languages

Spanish (native), English (proficient at reading, conversing, and writing), and German (elementary).

Personal Interests & Commitments

Long-distance running, sustainable fashion, and women’s leadership.