Daniela Florez Pineda
Research Collaborator, Biological Sciences
Perkins Lab
I completed my PhD in Mathematics at Tulane University under the guidance of Dr. Ricardo Cortez and Dr. James M. Hyman. My thesis centered on developing and analyzing mathematical models to understand and control mosquito-borne disease transmission. Specifically, I developed a spatial model of Wolbachia transmission among Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to explore infection establishment conditions and identify optimal release strategies in urban settings based on mosquito dispersal dynamics.
In parallel with my PhD studies, I worked as a Graduate Research Assistant in the Theoretical Biology and Biophysics division (T-6) at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where I integrated climate dynamics into mathematical models of disease transmission between human and mosquito populations. Last fall 2024, I joined Dr. Perkins Lab at Notre Dame, where I am applying my previous expertise to model co-circulating arboviruses in the Americas.