Ferialab Biosafety Laboratory
Research in this lab is focused on understanding the present and future (under climate change) distribution of species. There are three main lines of research related to 1) endangered species, 2) invasive species, and 3) vector borne diseases.
About Ferialab
Research in this lab is focused on understanding the present and future (under climate change) distribution of species. There are three main lines of research related to 1) endangered species, 2) invasive species, and 3) vector borne diseases.
About Dr. Feria
A native of Mexico City, Dr. Feria joined the UTRGV (former UTPA) Biology Department as an Assistant Professor in 2008. She earned both her B.S. in Biology with honors (1997) and an M.S. in Animal Biology (2001) from The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She then went on to complete a doctoral degree in Biology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (2007) and subsequently finished two post-doctoral appointments (Missouri Botanical Garden-Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development and UNAM, Mexico) before coming to UTPA.
Dr. Feria research focus on understanding present and future (under climate change scenarios) distribution of living organisms using Geographical Information System (GIS) technologies and Species Distribution Models. Her lines of research are related to endangered, invasive, and vector borne disease species. She teaches several undergraduate and graduate classes including Global Change Ecology, Conservation Biology, and Biological Problems.
She has received 19 grants to develop research, 6 as PI, 6 as Co-PI, 3 as collaborator, 3 as co-manager and 1 as senior personnel. She received a USDA grant in 2015 to support undergraduate studies in developing research. She has published 22 research papers and have been the main author or corresponding author on 8 of them. She has published 3 book chapters and have been the main author in two of them. She has presented more than 30 oral and poster presentations in national and international scientific conferences and also for general audiences as part of outreach programs. She also mentors high-school, undergraduate, master and PhD students. Recently she received an USDA grant that will support 30 students developing research on food security and climate change. She is mentor for the RISE, HHMI, BRIDGE, LSAMP-NSF programs, and C-STEM center. Her students have received recognitios for outstanding poster presentations at local, state, and national scientific conferences. One of her students recently obtained a very competitive NSF- fellowship to study his PhD at University of California San Francisco. She has participated in the Mothers-daughters at UTPA program as keynote speaker. Dr. Feria has reviewed grant-proposals for the Texas Academy of Science and National Science Foundation, Ornithological Council y Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia en Mexico and has served as a reviewer for 18 peer-reviewed journals.