Meet the Principal Investigators
Dr. José E. García Arrarás
Principal Investigator (PI)
Dr. García Arrarás is Professor in Biology who has been at University of Puerto Rico for 35 years. At different times he has held various administrative positions including Department Chair and Coordinator of the Graduate Program. He has been continuously involved in undergraduate student training via programs such as NIH-MBRS, MARC or NSF AMP and REU. At present he is the P.I. of two different R25s: an NIH BD2K training program to increase diversity in Big Data to Knowledge Centers that is ending next summer (2022) and an NIH-ENDURE training program to train undergraduates for careers in Neuroscience. Both programs have been highly successful, and the latter one is now in its third renewal cycle. (The BD2K is being phased out by NIH). Dr. García-Arrarás is not only well qualified as an administrator but has also been a highly successful mentor. He has mentored hundreds of students, mostly Hispanic and many of them women. Many of his publications include undergraduate student authors. Students in his lab have continued graduate programs in top-tier universities including Harvard, Yale, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Univ. of Washington, UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley, among many others.
Contact información: jose.garcia36@upr.edu
Dr. Juan S. Ramírez Lugo
Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI)
Dr. Ramírez-Lugo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology and the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the School of Natural Sciences at UPR-RP. He actively leads various initiatives dedicated to promoting inclusivity in the field of science. Notably, he serves as the Director of the Puerto Rico Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (PR-LSAMP, https://prlsamp.upr.edu), a crucial effort focused on fostering inclusivity in STEM fields across Puerto Rico. He is the Principal Investigator of the NSF-funded Interdisciplinary and Quantitative Biology Research Experience for Undergraduates (IQ BIO REU, http://iqbioreu.uprrp.edu) and is a member of the BIO REU Leadership Council. Additionally, he sits on the Steering Committee for the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS). From 2016 to 2020, he served as the President of the Caribbean Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and since 2022, he has been a member of the AAAS Board of Directors.
Contact information: juan.ramirez3@upr.edu