Kumar Mainali

Dr. Kumar Mainali holds a Ph.D. in ecology, evolution, and behavior, along with an MS in statistics from The University of Texas at Austin. His research career spans diverse fields, including conservation biology, ecology, biogeography, climate change, vector-borne diseases, human microbiome, behavior, and remote sensing. He applies cutting-edge technology of machine learning and AI to predict complex systems, mathematical tools to solve fundamental questions in ecology and biogeography, and sophisticated statistical tools to understand processes, patterns, and mechanisms in ecology and earth systems. His deep-learning based AI solutions for conservation challenges received wide media and governmental attention. His novel statistical tools and parameter, published in Science Advances, address a long-standing scientific challenge. Additionally, he contributed to one of the earliest applications of formal causal models in human microbiome analysis.With around 40 published research papers, Dr. Mainali has secured over $1.1 million in research funding, and his conservation work has been cited in Senate hearings, contributing to the passing of the Great American Outdoors Act. He has taught machine learning to graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Maryland, College Park. He also recently served as a guest editor for a Journal of Biogeography special section on emerging technologies.