Dr. Karen R. Ríos-Soto grew up and was academically raised in the public school system in Puerto Rico. She received a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez (UPRM) in 2002 and a Ph.D. in Biometry and Mathematical Biology from Cornell University in 2008 under the direction of Dr. Carlos Castillo-Chavez. Ríos-Soto is currently a Professor of Applied Mathematics and Bioengineering at UPRM and since 2010 an adjunct professor at the Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Science Center (MCMSC) at ASU. She has ample experience in the development of students through educational, research, and mentorship activities from the undergraduate to the doctoral level. She has supervised many undergraduate research students as well as masters and Ph.D. students at UPRM and in the U.S.A. She has been involved with the REU-Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute (MTBI) at ASU as a Distinguished Scholar for more than 20 years. For three consecutive summers (2010-2012) she was the MTBI summer director and co-director, supervising undergraduate and graduate research in mathematical biology. Ríos-Soto has co-organize scientific symposium, as well as being a speaker and mentor in various organizations and conferences. With her charisma and devotion, she encourages students to participate and present their research work in conferences and symposium around the nation, with some of the students winning research presentation awards. On the personal side, she lives in Puerto Rico with her husband and their two sons a 5 years old boy and a 7 months old baby boy. She enjoys to cook, tourism, family gatherings and all things girly, including makeup.

Dr. Ríos-Soto’s research interests reside on the study and modeling of biological systems in population dynamics, such as modeling the dynamics of infectious diseases, invasive species and social dynamics, among others. In particular, her research is driven by the study of the mechanisms underlying the spread of infectious diseases, their control and prevention. She has co-authored various peer reviewed publications in modeling the dynamics of infectious diseases, among others. In the past, she has studied the role of peer pressure dynamics on various social processes such as smoking, ecstasy use, and obesity. Other research projects, involving her graduate students at UPRM, are on models to prevent and control mosquito borne diseases. With her students, she has researched: parameter estimation of epidemiological parameters from dengue fever data, the impact of climate on the spatial spread of dengue, mechanisms of control of Zika virus epidemics including vaccination as well as yellow fever vaccine distribution in African countries. She has also work on studying ecological problems rising from host-parasite interactions. While her most recent interests are on studying the impact of particulate matter such as PM10 (produced by natural and unnatural sources) in pulmonary diseases.