Jose Ignacio Arroyo
Program Postdoctoral Fellow
Ignacio has worked in fields such as molecular evolution, phylogenetics, and microbial community ecology. His recent research has focused on theoretical ecology, particularly i) documenting general statistical patterns in biological systems, ii) evaluating predictions of biological theories, and iii) integrating first-principles from physics and chemistry to deduce mechanistic predictions that explain biological patterns. For example, in this last objective, he derived a simple and mechanistic model for temperature dependence in biological systems, based on thermodynamic theory and chemical kinetics, particularly based on the Eyring equation. Using this new model and integrating it with DNA sequencing theory and other ecological principles, he derived a model to explain the functional structure (i. e. genes, metabolic pathways) of microbiomes in natural environments or associated with a host, either in ectotherms or endotherms.
At SFI Ignacio works with Professor Chris Kempes and Professor Geoffrey West on metabolic scaling theory, using it to understand biological complexity from cells to companies, and cities.