Short Bio

My name is Alexander Ortiz Rivera. I’m from Ponce, Puerto Rico and I did my bachelor’s in science in Biology at the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey. Currently, I’m in the RaMP-UP program working with Dr. Fristoe on the macroecology of plant invasions. Outside of the lab, my favorite pastime or hobby is baking.

A fun fact or hobby: Before deciding on my major, my two main options were culinary arts or biology. In another universe, I would’ve been a pastry chef by now.

Research

Mentor:

Trevor Fristoe, PhD

Co-mentor: 

n/a

Project Title: 

The evolutionary imbalance and naturalization success of alien plants across mediterranean regions 

Project Description: 

We seek to unveil the effects of alien plant species invasion on evolutionary imbalance when focusing on specific biomes instead of a global scale since we expect them to be more pronounced. In our case, we are currently studying mediterranean regions.