About Dr. Machado
Dr. Machado has a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, an M.Sc. in Zoology, and a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences with an emphasis on Marine Biology. As a phylogeneticist, he was awarded the Willi Hennig Award in 2013. He continues to research the methodological, philosophical, and practical aspects of systematics. Since Jan. 2019, he has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics of UNC Charlotte. As a bioinformatician, he is interested in comparative genomics of non-model organisms.
Dr. Machado is one of the organizers of the Meeting of Systematics, Biogeography, and Evolution. The primary purpose of the SBE meetings is to reach people who usually have economic restrictions to attend most of the scientific meetings on different areas within evolutionary biology. The SBE meeting is coordinated mostly by young interdisciplinary Latin American scientists, supporting and promoting the active and equitable participation of all genders in this meeting.
He wanted to become a marine biologist as an undergrad, but got seasick very easily. As a Master's student, he worked with freshwater stingrays and their parasites, but got his hand pierced by a stingray, causing unimaginable pain due to their toxins. During his Ph.D. years, he decided to work with something less painful and focused on poison dart frogs. The golden poison frog has enough poison to kill him instantly, but it won't hurt. As if poison dart frogs were not a sufficiently deadly topic, his research as a postdoc at UNC Charlotte's BiG focuses on, among other topics, the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses.
Major or Recent Publications:
About Dr. Pérez Quiñones:
Dr. Manuel A. Pérez Quiñones is Professor of Software and Information Systems at UNC Charlotte. His research interests include personal information management, human-computer interaction, CS education, and diversity issues in computing. He holds a DSc from The George Washington University and a BA & MS from Ball State University. He has published over 100 refereed articles. Before joining UNC Charlotte, he worked at Virginia Tech, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, was a Visiting Professor at the US Naval Academy, and a Computer Scientist at the Naval Research Lab. He has been recognized for his service to diversify computing, earning: ACM Distinguished Member (2019); CRA Nico A. Haberman award (2018); and the Richard A. Tapia Achievement Award (2017). He is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Dr. Pérez Quiñones is the co-founder of the Hispanics in Computing group, which is the largest online community of Computer Science Hispanics/Latinx in the nation with over 400 members on its listserv. He is a former member of the board & former Vice President of Board for VALHEN, a non-profit in Virginia that advocates for education for Latinos in the state of VA. He has also been chair of the faculty/staff Hispanic/Latinx caucuses at two institution, UNC Charlotte and Virginia Tech.
He loves Salsa music and enjoys reading science fiction in its various forms (from comics to novels).
Major or Recent Publications:
