Yuyan Sun, Ph.D.

Areas of Interest

Theoretical Ecology; Conservation; Data Analysis; Environmental Policy

I am a postgraduate associate at the Jetz Lab. I previously received my undergraduate degree from Yale College with a B.S. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and a B.A. in Statistics & Data Science. My undergraduate research focused on modeling thermal performance and assessing extinction risks for ciliate protists. I also experimented with applying Machine Learning to morphological classification problems.

My work with the Map of Life team focuses on developing high-resolution species distribution models for terrestrial and freshwater systems as part of the MOLSDM project. I am deeply passionate about environmental conservation and fascinated by the intersection of biodiversity data and policymaking.

Hobbies

birding, hiking, nature documentaries, oil painting