Projected Normal Distribution: Moment Approximations and Generalizations
Herrera-Esposito, D.; Burge, J (2025). "Projected Normal Distribution: Moment Approximations and Generalizations." arXiv.
CV
Click here to download my CV as a PDF file.
Education
- 2021: Ph.D in Computational Neuroscience, Universidad de la República (UdelaR), Uruguay
- 2015: B.S. in Biochemistry, Universidad de la República, Uruguay (Summa Cum Laude)
Academic positions
2022-Ongoing: Postdoctoral Researcher, Burge Lab, University of Pennsylvania
2017-2022: Research & Teaching Associate, Laboratory of Neuroscience, Faculty of Sciences, UdelaR
2021-2022: Research & Teaching Associate, Interdisciplinary Center for Data Science and Machine Learning, UdelaR
2013-2017: Research & Teaching Assistant, Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Medicine, UdelaR
Skills
Software:
- Languages: Python, PyTorch, Matlab, R, Stan
- Tools: Git, GitHub, Continuous Integration (CI), Linux, Python software packaging
Statistics and Machine Learning:
- Multivariate statistics
- Hierarchical regression models
- Bayesian statistics
- Dimensionality reduction
- Image and signal processing
- Linear algebra and differential geometry
Neuroscience:
- Psychophysics
- Visual perception
- Computational neuroscience
- Neural data analysis
- Natural image statistics
- Neurobiology and biophysics
Publications
Click on the titles to see brief summaries of the papers, and links to data and code.
Supervised Quadratic Feature Analysis: An information geometry approach to dimensionality reduction
Herrera-Esposito, D.; Burge, J (2025). "Supervised Quadratic Feature Analysis: An information geometry approach to dimensionality reduction." arXiv.
Optimal estimation of local motion-in-depth with naturalistic stimuli
Herrera-Esposito, D.; Burge, J (2024). "Optimal estimation of local motion-in-depth with naturalistic stimuli" Journal of Neuroscience.
Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 seroassay sensitivity: a systematic review and modeling study
Nana Owusu-Boaitey, Timothy W Russell, Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, Andrew T Levin, Daniel Herrera-Esposito (2023). " Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 seroassay sensitivity: a systematic review and modeling study ." Eurosurveillance. 28(21).
Contact tracing-induced Allee effect in disease dynamics
Arim, Matı́as; Herrera-Esposito, D.; Bermolen, Paola; Cabana, Álvaro; Fariello, Marı́a Inés; Lima, Mauricio; Romero, Héctor (2022) . " Contact tracing-induced Allee effect in disease dynamics" Journal of Theoretical Biology. 542.
Assesing the burden of COVID-19 in developing countries: systematic review, meta-analysis and public policy implications
Andrew T Levin, Nana Owusu-Boaitey, Sierra Pugh, Bailey K Fosdick, Anthony B Zwi, Anup Malani, Satej Soman, Lonni Besançon, Ilya Kashnitsky, Sachin Ganesh, Aloysius McLaughlin, Gayeong Song, Rine Uhm, Daniel Herrera-Esposito, Gustavo de Los Campos, Ana Carolina Pecanha Peçanha Antonio, Enyew Birru Tadese, Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz (2022). "Assesing the burden of COVID-19 in developing countries: systematic review, meta-analysis and public policy implications." BMJ Global Health. 7.
Age-specific rate of severe and critical SARS-CoV-2 infections estimated with multi-country seroprevalence studies.
Herrera-Esposito, D.; de los Campos, Gustavo. " Age-specific rate of severe and critical SARS-CoV-2 infections estimated with multi-country seroprevalence studies. " BMC Infectious Diseases. 22,311.
Redundancy between spectral and higher-order texture statistics for natural image segmentation
Herrera-Esposito, D.; Gómez-Sena, L; Coen-Cagli, R. (2021). "Redundancy between spectral and higher-order texture statistics for natural image segmentation." Vision Research. 187
Flexible contextual modulation of naturalistic texture perception in peripheral vision
Herrera-Esposito, D.; Coen-Cagli, R.; Gómez-Sena, L; (2021). "Flexible contextual modulation of naturalistic texture perception in peripheral vision" Journal of Vision.
Tyrosine oxidation and nitration in transmembrane peptides is connected to lipid peroxidation
Silvina Bartesaghi, Daniel Herrera, Debora M. Martinez, Ariel Petruk, Veronica Demicheli, Madia Trujillo, Marcelo A. Marti, Dario A. Estrín, Rafael Radi (2017). "Tyrosine oxidation and nitration in transmembrane peptides is connected to lipid peroxidation " Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics. 622.
Software
I am interested in open-source scientific software development. I try to make my methodological work available as well-documented, tested, and easy-to-use Python packages, that other people can use. I also contribute to other open-source packages in the scientific Python ecosystem.
Packages I authored:
sqfa: Package implementing my method Supervised Quadratic Feature Analysis (SQFA), which uses information geometry to do supervised dimensionality reductionprojnormal: Package implementing my generalizations of the Projected Normal distribution.
Packages I contributed to:
geomstats: Package for statistics in Riemannian manifolds, developed at UC Santa Barbara. I improved the computation of distances in the manifold of positive definite matrices.plenoptic: Package for model-based image synthesis, developed at the Flatiron Institute, NYC. I improved the characterization of texture statistics, and added regularized image synthesis.scikit-learn: (Pending merge) Main library for classical machine learning in Python. I submitted an enhancement of Quadratic Discriminant Analysis to support use of robust and shrinkage covariance estimators. I also submitted a missing correction to the Minimum Covariance Determinant estimator, fixing a bias in the output.
Presentations
Supervised Quadratic Feature Analysis: An information geometry approach to dimensionality reduction
Poster at Symmetry and Geometry in Neural Representations Workshop, NEURIPS 2024, Vancouver, Canada
Noise and divisive normalization: Neuroscience in online math forums
Invited talk at Society of Neuroscience of Uruguay (SNU) meeting., Montevideo, Uruguay
A geometric analysis of task-specific natural image statistics
Invited talk at Alex H. Williams lab meeting, Flatiron Institute, New York, NY, USA
Analytic model of response statistics in noisy neural populations with divisive normalization
Poster at Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) 2024, Lisbon, Portugal
Image-computable Bayesian model for 3D motion estimation with natural stimuli explains human biases
Poster at Shared Visual Representations in Humans and Machines (SVRHM) Workshop @ NEURIPS 2022, New Orleans, LA, USA
Task-dependent contribution of higher-order statistics to natural texture processing
Talk at Virtual Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting,
Task-dependent contribution of higher-order statistics to natural texture processing
Poster at Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) 2022, Lisbon, Portugal
Age-stratified severe and critical infection rates to estimate COVID-19 under-ascertainment
Talk at 7th International Conference on Time Series and Forecasting, Virtual
Insensitivity of visual segmentation to higher-order statistics reflects redundancy in natural images
Poster at Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) 2021, Virtual
Crowding of naturalistic visual textures
Talk at Uruguayan Society of Biology Meeting 2017, Montevideo, Uruguay
Technical reports
During COVID-19, I was founding member of a large collaboration at UdelaR to work on COVID-19 data analysis, called GUIAD-COVID-19. There, I authored technical reports to inform the public and decision makers, which are are hosted in UdelaR’s institutional repository:
Report 2: Subexponential growth of reported cases in Uruguay
March 2020
M. Arim; D. Herrera-Esposito; J.I. Sanguinetti-Scheck; J. Pintos; A. Alemán; H. Romero; M.I. Fariello; H. BottiReport 3: Estimation of under-ascertainment of COVID-19 cases in Uruguay
April 2020
D. Herrera-Esposito; P. Bermolen; M.I. FarielloReport 9: COVID-19 dynamics at low numbers: alternative states and policy implications
September 2020
P. Bermolen; D. Herrera-Esposito; A. Cabana; M.I. Fariello; M. Arim; H. RomeroReport 10: Age-stratified severe, critical and fatal COVID-19 cases among individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2
December 2020
D. Herrera-Esposito
Some of these reports are featured in UdelaR’s contributions to the COVID-19 response report.
Teaching
I have held teaching positions at Universidad de la República (UdelaR) from 2013 to 2022. I have taught in Biochemistry, Neuroscience, and Machine Learning, at both undergraduate and graduate levels. I have also mentored year-long undergraduate student projects. A list of my teaching activities (click the link to expand and see teaching materials):
Service
- I am an active user of the StackExchange CrossValidated forum, where I answer questions about statistics and machine learning
- Founding co-organizer of the Annual Conference Prof. Ruben Budelli, an annual invited talk in Uruguay, supported by the Federation of Latin American and Caribbean Neuroscience Societies (FALAN)
- 2024 edition: Extracellular vesicles as stress signals important to brain development and function, Tracy L. Bale, University of Colorado
- 2023 edition: Powering the social brain: Mitochondria and metabolism in social behavior, Carmen Sandi, EPFL
- Reviewer for:
Science communication
- 2022 June: Interviewed for Nature News piece COVID was twice as deadly in poorer countries
- 2021 November: Interview for www.stuff.co.nz/ piece Covid-19 NZ: Just how deadly is the virus?
- 2021 August: Science communication piece published by Uruguay newspaper La Diaria, titled Herd immunity, higiene theater and the end of the pandemic
- 2020 December: Interview for the front page piece on COVID-19 in El País, Uruguay (largest newspaper in the country)
- 2020 December: TV interview at Telenoche Uruguay about the COVID-19 pandemic in Uruguay
- 2019 November: 20 minute interview in TV show Todo tiene un porqué, a science communication show in Uruguay. Title: Why are most of our memories false?
- 2019 May: Science communication piece for Uruguayan website uy.press, titled The reproducibility problem in science
- 2018 June: Radio interview at Justicia Inifinita program in Uruguay Radio, on visual perception research
- 2017 November: Talk titled “Is the world as we see it?”, at High School Liceo Carlos Vaz Ferreira
Funding and recognitions
- Presenters Travel Grant, Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) 2022
- Official collaborator of the Uruguayan government’s Honorary Scientific Advisory Group for the COVID-19 pandemic (GACH)
- Highlight of my research in UdelaR’s report of contributions to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Citation of my COVID-19 research in a hearing in the House of Representatives, USA
- Project funded: Program for specialized knowledge for COVID-19, CSIC, UdelaR. Title: Estimation of under-ascertainment of COVID-19 cases in Uruguay. Responsible researcher
- PhD scholarship from UdelaR, 2016-2021
- Travelers grant by PEDECIBA, UdelaR, to visit Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM), NYC in summer 2019
- Travelers grant by CSIC, UdelaR, to visit Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM), NYC in summer 2018
- Graduated top of the 2015 Biochemistry class, UdelaR