
Trevor D. Ruiz
Appointments
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Assistant Professor | 2023-present
University of California, Santa Barbara
Visiting Assistant Professor | 2020-2023
Education
Oregon State University
Ph.D. Statistics | 2020
M.S. Statistics | 2017
Reed College
B.A. Philosophy | 2011
Interests
I’m an Assistant Professor in the Statistics Department at Cal Poly SLO, where I work on applied statistics, collaborations in biology and ecology, and undergraduate and master’s level teaching. My interests and background in statistics are in methodology for high-dimensional data, model selection, multivariate analysis, and time series analysis, and I’m especially interested in applied projects that intersect with these areas.
Current projects (AY25-26)
Using depth-stratified association networks to understand the spatial ecology of harmful algal blooms in coastal waters. Collaboration with Alexis Pasulka, Biological Sciences Department, Cal Poly. Students: Barbara Ibrahim, Lucy Nelson.
Dynamic coupling of pH and oxygen in Morro Bay. Collaboration with Emily Bockmon, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, and Julia Schedler, Statistics Department, Cal Poly. Students: Jose Garcia, Alea Seifert.
Geographic and environmental drivers of differential thermoregulation and metabolism among rattlesnake populations across North America. Collaboration with Emily Taylor and Haley Moniz, Biological Sciences Department, Cal Poly, and others. Students: Nicole Yee, Allen Choi, Emma Reardon.
Phylogeny vs. physiology: how a guild of desert lizards maintain water balance. Collaboration with Emily Taylor, Biological Sciences Department, Cal Poly, and Savannah Weaver, Department of Biology, UNC. Students: Ethan Barnes and Alvaro Ramos.
An iterative algorithm for partial envelope estimation in high-dimensional regression. Students: Nathan Greenfield, Nick Patrick.
Manuscripts & Publications
Annotations: student coauthors
E.M. Reardon
, N.E. Yee , H.A. Moniz, T.D. Ruiz, S.M. Boback, E.N. Taylor. Effects of reproductive status on standard metabolic rate of the prairie rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis) at high elevation site with a short active season. In preparation.E.V. Satterthwaite
, T.D. Ruiz , K.G. Chan , N. Patrick , M.N. Alksne, N.V. Patin, J. Dinasquet, R.H. Lampe, A.O. Shelton, L. Thomas, B. Semmens. Microbial and small plankton environmental DNA predicts density of blue, fin, and humpback whales in the southern California bight. In preparation.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'
, T. D. Ruiz , 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
I currently teach courses in probability, applied statistics, and data science. My broader teaching competence includes most areas of statistics at an advanced undergraduate or master’s level.
Student work
N. Patrick, N. Greenfield (2025). Partial partial least squares regression: a hybrid approach to dimension reduction. Bailey College of Science and Mathematics 2025 Student Research Conference. [poster]
N.E. Yee, E.M. Reardon (2024). Modeling the baseline metabolic needs of prairie rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) based on reproductive status. Presented at 2024 Cal Poly SURP+ Symposium and Bailey College of Science and Mathematics 2025 Student Research Conference. [poster]