Mentorship · 2024
UNLV Graduate Mentor — MENTORS Program
Mentoring an incoming graduate student through the Graduate Mentoring Excellence program — guidance on academic challenges, career planning, and professional networks.
Ongoing
Karen
Figueroa
Chilito
01/07 — Portrait
A scientist at work.
I'm Karen Figueroa Chilito — a data scientist and researcher studying the dynamics of mosquito populations and the diseases they spread, including malaria and dengue. I am currently pursuing a PhD in Global and Environmental Health at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and work as a graduate researcher in the PARAVEC Laboratory under Dr. Louisa Messenger.
My work integrates machine learning, geospatial analysis of high-resolution raster datasets, and genomics to explore how mosquitoes adapt to new environments, what drives their spread, and the environmental patterns that determine their survival. By developing predictive models and analyzing genetic data, I aim to inform innovative strategies to combat mosquito-borne diseases and protect vulnerable populations worldwide.
- Based
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Program
- UNLV · School of Public Health
- Laboratory
- PARAVEC
- Advisor
- Dr. Louisa Messenger
02/07 — Research
Field of inquiry.
I study the intersection of climate change and mosquito population dynamics — reading the landscape like a living document.
Methods
I model the relationships between environmental change — vegetation, surface water, temperature — and the distribution of vector populations, developing predictive pipelines that integrate remote sensing with population genomics.
The goal is operational: turn raster stacks and sequencing reads into adaptive public-health strategies. Monitoring systems that watch where disease is most likely to arrive next, and why.
02.1 — Featured
In print.
Peer-Reviewed · Co-author
The Lancet
Planetary Health
Planetary Health
Vol. 8 · 2024
A contribution to planetary-scale health research.
Published in The Lancet Planetary Health, this work sits at the intersection of vector biology, climate, and global health — the kind of research that asks how ecology and epidemiology inform each other.
Read the article →- A.01 Complete publication record on Google Scholar ↗ scholar.google.com
- A.02 Academic e-portfolio ↗ mygreatlearning.com
03/07 — Toolkit
By the numbers.
4+
Years of
Research
Research
3
Conferences
Presented
Presented
1
Lancet
Co-authorship
Co-authorship
Aa
Primary Species
Aedes aegypti
Aedes aegypti
The stack
Python/ml · analysis
R/stats
PyTorch/deep learning
scikit-learn/ml
TensorFlow/dl
Pandas/wrangling
QGIS/geospatial
Earth Engine/remote sensing
Jupyter/notebooks
Git/version control
SQL/databases
LaTeX/publication
04/07 — Advocacy
Beyond the lab bench.
Representing Nevada at the 2024 United to Beat Malaria Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. — because data without policy is a paper, not a strategy.
The summit, a grassroots campaign by the United Nations Foundation, gathers advocates to address the urgent need for sustained funding for malaria elimination. I attended alongside my advisor, Dr. Louisa Messenger, who participated in the plenary panel on bridging research and advocacy.
We met with policymakers to advocate for continued investment in the President's Malaria Initiative, the CDC, and global-health institutions — the Global Fund, Gavi, and UNICEF — that form the scaffolding of international disease response.
Meetings — Nevada delegation
- Jacky Rosen U.S. Senate
- Catherine Cortez-Masto U.S. Senate
- Dina Titus U.S. House
05/07 — Field
Selected conferences.
-
Mar · AMCA 91st2025
Predicting geographic expansion and genetic adaptation of Aedes aegypti in Southern Nevada using machine-learning techniques.
American Mosquito Control Association · Puerto Rico Convention CenterScheduled presentation in the New Vector Control Tools: UAS & Artificial Intelligence session on March 6, 2025.
-
Nov · ASTMH2024
Population genomics of an invasive mosquito vector, Aedes aegypti, in Southern Nevada.
American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene · New Orleans, LAPresented in the Young Investigator Award Competition, highlighting insights into genetic diversity and population dynamics in arid environments — with implications for vector-control strategy and public-health intervention.
-
Dec · NeurIPS2023
NeurIPS — Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems.
Vancouver, CanadaWorkshops at the intersection of AI and science:
- Self-Supervised Learning: Theory & Practice — applying SSL methods to genomic sequences and geospatial imaging.
- Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning — spatio-temporal modeling, GHG monitoring, renewable-energy forecasting.
- UniReps: Unifying Representations in Neural Models — theoretical frameworks for aligning representations.
Connected with Women in Machine Learning and Latinx in AI.
05.1 — Honors
Awards & service.
Scholarship
Mary Guinan & Shawn Gerstenberger Public Health Scholarship
Awarded for commitment to advancing public health in Nevada — particularly in Environmental & Occupational Health and Biostatistics & Epidemiology.
UNLV
Award
ARPA Scholarship — Experiential Learning
$1,500 award in support of an experiential learning project addressing public-health challenges in Nevada.
State of Nevada
06/07 — Play
Mosquito simulator.
A toy population model grounded in real ecology. Click the grid to seed a cluster; drag temperature and rainfall sliders to shift the environment and watch the dynamics evolve.
06.1 — Work
Selected projects.
P.01 — In development
Mosquito population dynamics.
An application analyzing climate-change impacts on mosquito distribution using high-resolution satellite data and environmental rasters.
P.02 — In development
Mosquito-borne disease dashboard.
An interactive dashboard to track and visualize trends in vector-borne disease using predictive modeling and public surveillance data.
06.2 — Portfolio
The index.
06.3 — Curriculum Vitae
In full.
07/07 — Contact