Dr. Taom Sakal is a theoretical biologist and an expert in the mathematical modeling of complex ecological and evolutionary systems. He specializes in applying techniques from network science, big data, optimization, and pure mathematics to biological problems.

With more than ten years of research experience, Dr. Sakal has worked on a wide range of scientific projects. He has helped lay the mathematical foundations for modeling host-microbiome coevolution, unified models of bacterial aging with optimal offspring size theory, and discovered a new evolutionary reason why runts-of-the-litter may exist. Outside of biology, Dr. Sakal has conducted research in network science and developed a machine learning model to study fiction readers' preferences.

Dr. Sakal has over ten years of experience in scientific simulation using Python, R, Julia, and Mathematica. He has over five years of experience teaching courses in infectious diseases, animal behavior, evolutionary modeling, and Bayesian statistics. He holds a bachelor's degree in pure mathematics and a PhD in ecology, evolution, and marine biology, both from UC Santa Barbara. In his free time, Dr. Sakal enjoys writing fiction, playing piano, making pens, drawing, and a having good road trip or hiking adventure.

Dr. Sakal's Trainings

•  NSF IGERT Network Science and Big Data Traineeship (2016-2018)