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).

• Phylogeny vs. physiology: how a guild of desert lizards maintain water balance. Collaborators: Emily Taylor (biology), Savannah Weaver (biology), and others. Students: Ethan Barnes (biology), Alvaro Ramos (statistics).

Papers

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

• 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. Submitted to Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology.

• 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. Submitted to PLOS One. [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, data science.

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

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