About

I’m an Assistant Professor in the Statistics Department of the Bailey College of Science and Mathematics at Cal Poly SLO, where I do applied statistics and teach undergraduate and master’s level courses. My areas of expertise include methodology for high-dimensional data, statistical algorithms, model selection, and time series analysis, and I currently work on biological and ecological applications.

Vita

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Assistant Professor | 2023-present

University of California, Santa Barbara

Visiting Assistant Professor | 2020-2023

Oregon State University

Ph.D. Statistics | 2020

M.S. Statistics | 2017

Portland State University

Graduate Certificate in Applied Statistics | 2015

Reed College

B.A. Philosophy | 2011

Projects

AY25-26. Working titles.

• Using depth-stratified association networks to understand the spatial ecology of harmful algal blooms in coastal waters. Collaborators: Alexis Pasulka (biology). Students: Barbara Ibrahim (statistics), Lucy Nelson (biology), Emi Degembe (statistics).

• Toward more accurate allometric equations: integrating arborist records and remote sensing to improve urban tree growth and benefit estimates. Collaborators: Camille Pawlak (geography), Reed Kenny (ecology), Jenn Yost (biology), Julia Schedler (statistics), and others. Students: Kaviya Veerasingam (statistics), Nico Julia (geography).

• Dynamic coupling of pH and oxygen in Morro Bay. Collaborators: Emily Bockmon (chemical oceanography), Julia Schedler (statistics). Students: Jose Garcia (statistics), Alea Seifert (statistics).

• Geographic and environmental drivers of differential thermoregulation and metabolism among rattlesnake populations across North America. Collaborators: Emily Taylor (biology), Haley Moniz (biology), and others. Students: Nicole Yee (statistics), Allen Choi (statistics), Emma Reardon (environmental protection and management).

Papers

See CV for a full publication list. $\mathrm{\S }$ indicates co-leads; $†$ indicates students.

• S.J. Weaver, E.H. Barnes${}^{†}$, A. Ramos${}^{†}$, K. Brock, E. Odberg, J. Chung, T.D. Ruiz, E.N. Taylor. Phylogeny vs. physiology: how a guild of desert lizards maintain water balance. In preparation.

• H.A. Moniz${}^{\mathrm{\S }}$, T.D. Ruiz${}^{\mathrm{\S }}$, N.E. Yee${}^{†}$, E.M. Reardon${}^{†}$, S.M. Boback, E.N. Taylor. Low metabolic rates and extended winters create exceptionally low energetic requirements for female rattlesnakes. In revision.

• E.V. Satterthwaite${}^{\mathrm{\S }}$, T.D. Ruiz${}^{\mathrm{\S }}$, N.V. Patin, M.N. Alksne, L. Thomas, J. Dinasquet, R.H. Lampe, N.A. Patrick${}^{†}$, K.G. Chan${}^{†}$, A.E. Allen, S. Baumann-Pickering, B.X. Semmens. Microbial and small plankton environmental DNA predicts density of blue, fin, and humpback whales in the southern California bight. Under review. [preprint] [data] [code]

• T. D. Ruiz, S. Bhattacharyya, S. C. Emerson (2025). Sparse estimation of parameter support sets for generalized vector autoregressions by resampling and model aggregation. Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation. [paper] [preprint] [code]

• H. A. Moniz, J. H. Buck, H. L. Crowell, S. M. Goetz, T. D. Ruiz, S. M. Boback, E. N. Taylor (2024). High thermal quality rookeries facilitate high thermoregulatory accuracy in pregnant female rattlesnakes. Journal of Thermal Biology. [paper] [data] [code]

• A. M. E. Ojwang'${}^{\mathrm{\S }}$, T. D. Ruiz${}^{\mathrm{\S }}$, S. Bhattacharyya, S. Chatterjee, P. S. Ojiambo, D. H. Gent (2021). A general framework for spatio-temporal modeling of epidemics with multiple epicenters: application to an aerially dispersed plant pathogen. Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics. [paper]

Courses

See CV for a full course list.

Materials for a few recent courses are below. My areas of competence include probability, mathematical statistics, applied statistics, regression analysis, linear models, time series analysis, multivariate analysis, stochastic processes, statistical learning, and data science.

• [STAT545] Applied stochastic processes
• [STAT590] Graduate seminar in statistics
• [STAT218] Applied statistics for life sciences
• [STAT425] Probability theory

Students

In reverse chronological order by graduation year.

Graduate

• Nicole Yee, M.S. Statistics 2027
• Emi Degembe, M.S. Statistics 2027
• Jose Garcia, M.S. Statistics 2026
• Alex Yuan, M.S. Statistics 2026
• Nathan Greenfield, M.S. Statistics 2026
• Kyle Bistrain, M.S. Statistics 2025
• Katherine Chan, M.S. Statistics 2024

Undergraduate

• Barbara Ibrahim, B.S. Statistics 2027
• Kaviya Veerasingam, B.S. Statistics 2027
• Alea Seifert, B.S. Statistics 2026
• Alvaro Ramos, B.S. Statistics 2026
• Allen Choi, B.S. Statistics 2025
• Nick Patrick, B.S. Statistics 2025