Professor Derik Castillo studied Biology at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM), Xochimilco Campus, where he became interested in the application of statistical and mathematical models in Biology.

He continued his training with a specialty in Applied Statistics at the Institute for Research in Applied Mathematics and Systems of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) as well as with several courses in Biomathematics, such as the Mathematical Sciences Summer Institute at Cornell University, USA, and the School on Theorerical biology and Ecology of the Abdus Salam Theoretical Physics Institute of Trieste, Italy.

He completed his Ph.D. at the Institute of Ecology of the UNAM with topics in population ecology and evolution. He made two post-doctoral stays, one in the department of Applied Ecology of the Institute of Ecology AC in Xalapa, Veracruz, where he worked on Catastrophe theory applied to shallow lakes, and in the Department of Biology at the University of Kentucky, where he worked on a model of HIV infection.

Since 2011, he has been a professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) Lerma Campus, where he works in the Environmental Sciences department, teaching mathematics and statistics courses in the Environmental Biology degree program.

He has eight articles published in international indexed journals, two book chapters, and he collaborates with the National Institute of Pediatrics and is part of the research area in Conservation Biology. He has also participated in national and international congresses.