About Carlos

I am an assistantassociate professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Nevada, Reno, where I am also a member of the Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology (EECB) Program, the Integrative Neuroscience Program, and the Core Humanities Department.

Before arriving at Nevada, did postdoctoral work at Dalhousie University with W. Ford Doolittle. Prior to that, I received my Ph.D. from Duke University working with Robert Brandon and Alex Rosenberg.

I have presented my work in dozens of universities around the world, organized several research workshops, and published articles in philosophy, biology, and interdisciplinary journals. My work largely focuses on what we can know about life in the Universe, the origins of life on Earth and elsewhere, and the many philosophical issues raised by the multidisciplinary science of astrobiology.

Lastly, I started and co-organized the community outreach program Thought on Tap.

Apart from Reno, I call New Mexico, North Carolina, and Mexico City home. I’m from the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Specifically, I’m from a small, rural town known as Chaparral. I grew up in the Gadsden purchase and went to New Mexico State University.

My parents are both from Mexico City and I am a dual-citizen (US & Mexico). I am fluent in Spanish and decent at American Sign Language. I have some thoughts about diversity here.

At one point in my undergraduate career, I did a semester at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, Pennsylvania through the National Student Exchange. I also did the International Student Exchange Program at Macquarie University in North Ryde, NSW, Australia. Aside from New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Australia, and North Carolina, I have lived in Mexico City, Seattle, and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In my hypothetical spare time, I like to draw comics, write fiction, organize puzzle hunts, play poker, develop card games, do mixed martial arts, and drink palomas with friends. For the first few years of my graduate career, my friends and I would try a new restaurant every week, my last few years, we hosted a rotating ‘dinner club;’ in my postdoc, we organized a regular salon; and in Reno, I’ve been organizing the Thought on Tap, volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern Nevada, and several other projects. I regularly have a side project of some sort, usually leading to tangible results. You should check out my various non-philosophical ventures here.

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