CV

You can find a pdf version of my CV here.

Education

• Ph.D in Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh, 2020.
• M.S. in Mathematics, East Tennesse State University, 2014.
• B.S. in Mathematics, Universidad de Costa Rica, 2010.

Research Interests

• Mathematical immunology and immunometabolism, mathematical modeling, parameter estimation, uncertainty quantification, infectious diseases, pathogen-host viral dynamics, optimal control, epidemiology, population dynamics, data science and machine learning.

• Awards

• Diversity Supplement (AI139088), 2020-2023, NIH/NIAID Program Project Award (R01), PI: Dr. Amber Smith.
• Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh, 2019-2020.
• Arts and Sciences Graduate Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh, 2014-2015.

Publications

• I. Ramirez-Zuniga, William B. MacLeod, Chilufya Chikoti, Geoffrey Kwenda, Rotem Lapidot, Christopher J. Gill, Amber M. Smith. Sequential Respiratory Syncytial Virus and Bacterial Infections in the Nasopharynx of Zambian Infants and Mothers. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal Volume 44 - Issue 8:717-727, (2025). Link.
• A.P. Smith, L.C. Lane, I. Ramirez-Zuniga, D.J. Moquin, P. Vogel, A.M. Smith (2022). Increased Virus Dissemination Leads to Enhanced Lung Injury But Not Inflammation During Influenza-Associated Secondary Bacterial Infection.FEMS Microbes, Volume 3, 2022, xtac022, Link.
• I. Ramirez Zuniga, Jonathan E. Rubin, David Swigon, Gilles Clermont, and Heinz Redl. A data-driven model of the role of energy in sepsis. Journal of Theoretical Biology. Volume 533. (2022).
• I. Ramirez Zuniga, Jonathan E. Rubin, David Swigon, and Gilles Clermont. Mathematical Modeling of Energy Consumption in the Acute Inflammatory Response. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 460. 101-114, (2019). (Link).
• R. Brady, C. Puelz, I. Ramirez Zuniga, K. Larripa, M.S. Olufsen (2017). “A coupled model exploring the cardiovascular response to an acute inflammatory event.” Proc 5th Int Conf Comp Math Biomed Eng (CMBE), Vol 1, 336-339. (Link).
• I. Ramirez Zuniga. (2014). “Mathematical Modeling of Immune Responses to Hepatitis C Virus Infection.” Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2425. (Link).

Talks and Poster Presentations

• Talk: A Mechanistic Model of Inflammation in Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis: Linking Heme, Complement (C5a), and Tissue Injury. SIAM conference on the life sciences (LS26), Cleveland OH, July 2026.
• Talk: Advances in statistical and mechanistic modeling of infectious diseases”. Department of Mathematics Colloquium at UT Tyler, October 2025.
• Talk: Modeling in-host Pathogen Dynamics, Department of Mathematics Colloquium at The University of Texas at Tyler, October 2024 .
• Panelist in the Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Panel Discussion at UT Tyler, organized by the ACM Chapter, October 2024.
• Panelist at the Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (TUMC) panel discussion on graduate programs, October 2024.
• Talk: “Surviving the Zombie Apocalyse with Math”, Department of Mathematics, Undergraduate Seminar at The University of Texas at Tyler, October 2024.
• Talk (Virtual): “Modeling the Energy Requirements of an Acute Immune Response during Sepsis”. Laboratory for Systems Medicine, University of Florida, January 2024 .
• Talk: “ Modeling the Dynamics of Alveolar Macrophages and Interferon Gamma During Influenza Infection ”. SIAM conference on applications of dynamical systems (DS23), Portland OR, May 2023.
• Poster presentation: ”Sequential interactions between RSV and pneumococcus in the nasopharynx of Zambian infants and mothers”. ReSViNET Conference, Lisbon Portugal, Feb 2023.
• Talk: ”Modeling the Energy Consumption During An Acute Inflammatory Response and Sepsis”. SIAM conference on the life sciences (LS22) (virtual), July 2022.
• Talk: “A Data-driven Mathematical Study of the Role of Energy in Sepsis”. Society for Mathematical Biology (SMB21) (virtual), June 2021.
• Talk: “A Data-driven Mathematical Study of the Role of Energy in Sepsis”. SIAM conference on the life sciences (DS21) (virtual), May 2021.
• Talk: “A Data-driven Mathematical Study of the Role of Energy in Sepsis” at the Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM), Denver CO, January 2020.
• Poster presentation: “A Data-driven Mathematical Study of the Role of Energy in Sepsis” at the workshop :Summit on the Rules of Life at The Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI), Columbus OH, June 2019.
• Talk: “Mathematical Modeling of Energy Consumption in the Acute Inflammatory Response” at the Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference (BAMM), Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond VA, May 2019.
• Talk: “Mathematical Modeling of Energy Consumption in the Acute Inflammatory Response” at the AMS Microconference on Parameter Estimation at the Marriot City Center, Minneapolis MN, August 2018.
• Talk: “Mathematical Modeling of Energy Consumption in the Acute Inflammatory Response”. SIAM conference on the life sciences (LS18) at the Radisson Blu Minneapolis, Minneapolis MN, August 2018.
• Poster presentation: “Mathematical Modeling of Energy Consumption in the Acute Inflammatory Response”. at the workshop : Research training group in mathematical biology “Parameter Estimation for Mechanistic Biological Models”. NC State University, Raleigh NC, July 2018.
• Poster presentation: “Mathematical Modeling of Energy Consumption in the Acute Inflammatory Response” at the workshop :Host-pathogens dynamics at The Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI), Columbus OH, February 2018.
• Poster presentation: “Mathematical Modeling of Energy Consumption in the Acute Inflammatory Response” at the SIAM Conference on the Life Sciences 2016, Boston, MA July 2016.
• Talk: “Sensitivity Analysis and optimal Control Treatment of Hepatitis C Virus Dynamics” at the Appalachian Student Research Forum 2014. East Tennessee State University, April 2014, Johnson City, TN.
• Poster presentation: “Proyecto 6x4 UEALC”at the Week of Methods to Reduce Dimension in Data Analysis at Centro de Investigaciones Matematicas , CIMAT, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Attended Conferences, Workshops, and Summer Schools

• Conference: SIAM conference on the life sciences (LS26), Cleveland OH, July 2026. • Workshop: Uncertainty Quantification for Mathematical Biology, ICERM RI, May 2025. • Conference: SIAM conference on applications of dynamical systems (DS23), Portland OR, May 2023. • Conference: ReSViNET Conference, Lisbon Portugal, Feb 2023. • Conference: (Virtual) SIAM conference on the life sciences (LS22) (virtual), July 2022. • Conference: (Virtual) 5th Workshop on Viral Dynamics, October, 2021. • Conference: (Virtual) Society for Mathematical Biology, Annual Meeting and Conference, June 2021

• Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM), Denver CO, January 2020.
• Workshop: Summit on the Rules of Life at The Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI), Columbus OH, June 2019.
• Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference (BAMM), Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond VA, May 2019.
• Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM), Baltimore MD, January 2019.
• AMS Microconference on Parameter Estimation at the Marriot City Center, Minneapolis MN, August 2018.
• SIAM conference on the life sciences (LS18) at the Radisson Blu Minneapolis, Minneapolis MN, August 2018.
• Workshop: Research training group in mathematical biology “Parameter Estimation for Mechanistic Biological Models”. NC State University, Raleigh NC, July 2018.
• Workshop: Host-pathogens dynamics at The Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI),Columbus OH, February 2018.
• SIAM Conference on the Life Sciences 2016, Boston, MA July 2016.
• Mathematics Research Communities - Mathematics in Physiology and Medicine, Snowbird Utah, June 2016.
• Summer School, The Joint 2015 CAMBAM-MBI-NIMBioS’’ in Nonlinear Dynamics in Biological Systems at McGill University, Montreal, June 2015.
• Tutorial: “Parameter Estimation for Dynamic Biological Models” at NIMBioS, Knoxville, TN, May 2014.
• SEARCDE 2013, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, September 2013.
• The Society for Mathematical Biology Annual Meeting and Conference, Convention Center, Knoxville, TN, July 2012.
• Math Schools for Latin America and the Caribbean, EMALCA, University of Costa Rica, San Ramon, Costa Rica 2012.
• International Symposium of Applied Methods on Sciences, SIMAC, University of Costa Rica, San Jose, Costa Rica 2012.
• International Symposium of Applied Methods on Sciences, SIMAC, University of Costa Rica, San Jose, Costa Rica 2008.
• International Symposium of Applied Methods on Sciences, SIMAC, University of Costa Rica, San Jose, Costa Rica 2006.

Experience

• Assistant Professor, 2024-Present. Department of Mathematics. Depatment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. The University of Texas at Tyler,
• Postdoctoral Associate, January 2024-July 2024. Department of Medicine, Laboratory for Systems Medicine, University of Florida. PI: Dr. Luis Sordo Vieira.
  • Developed mathematical models of an immune response to invasive aspergillosis. Methods: differential equations and numerical simulations in Matlab and Python.
• Postdoctoral Scholar, September 2020- September 2023. Department of Pediatrics, University of Tennessee Health Science Center. PI: Dr. Amber Smith.
  • Developed mathematical models of influenza virus as a primary infection as wells as bacterial co-infection. Methods: delayed differential equations, ordinary differential equations, mechanistic modeling, parameter estimation, bootstrap, numerical simulations.
  • Performed data cleaning and data analysis of metabolomics data from viral infected and coinfected mice. Methods: numerical simulations, statistic models, t-tests, ANOVA, principal components, linear and multiple regression, hierarchical clustering, classification algorithms.
• Teaching Assistant, Fall 2014-Summer 2020. Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh.
  • Courses Taught: Math 0220 Calculus I, Math 0230 Calculus II, Math 0240 Calculus III, Math 0290 Differential Equations, Math 0280 Linear Algebra, Math 0450 Introduction to Analysis Honors.
• Instructor, Summer 2019. Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh.
  • Course Taught: Math 0120 Business Calculus.
• Instructor, Summer 2018. Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh.
  • Course Taught: Math 0240 Calculus III.
• Instructor, Summer 2017. Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh.
  • Course Taught: Math 0230 Calculus II.
• Instructor, Summer 2015. Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh.
  • Course Taught: Math 0290 Differential Equations.
• Instructor, Fall 2013 - Summer 2014. Department of Mathematics, East Tennessee State University (ETSU).
  • Courses Taught: Math 0220 Calculus I, Calculus II.
• Instructor, 2009 - December 2012. Department of Mathematics, Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR).
  • Courses Taught: MA1001 Calculus I, MA1002 Calculus II, MA1004 Linear Algebra, and MA1005 Differential Equations.
• High School Teacher, 2010 - December 2012. Colegio Cientifico Costarricense (STEM High School type).
  • Courses Taught: Calculus I and Precalculus.

Computer Skills

• Languages
  • Matlab
  • Python
  • R
• Tools
  • XPP-Aut
  • Mathematica
  • Maple
  • LaTeX
  • Git and GitHub
  • Anaconda

Licenses and Certifications

• Diversity Certificate Program, November 2021.
• Erdos Data Science Bootcamp, June 2021 See certificate here.