Cristian Román-Palacios is a biologist with expertise in phylogenetics, biostatistics, and machine learning. He has published more than 25 papers (on a range of topics, many first-authored). His research has been featured in Science news, Popular Science, CNN, USA Today, among many other news outlets. Cristian primarily studies large-scale biodiversity patterns from an Eco/Evo perspective and examines the effects of climate change on species survival. He also develops statistical tools that are for performing paleoclimatic reconstructions. Prior to joining the University of Arizona, Cristian was a staff researcher at the Tripati’s lab (UCLA). He earned his B.Sc. in Biology from Universidad del Valle in Colombia (2015) and Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from U of A (2020).