Academic Journey

I believe that education and research opportunities are paramount for building a more equal and sustainable society worldwide. This is also true for the conservation of global biodiversity. Here, I would like to provide some evidences about the importance of education and research.

I am from Salvador, Bahia, the Brazilian capital of unemployment, and I lived most of my life in the favelas (slums). Unfortunately, those environments have numerous challenges. I often tell my colleagues and friends that the only thing that opened doors for me in my life was opening books. Public education, access to knowledge, research opportunities, collaborations, funding, scholarships, and the privilege to have had excellent mentors made everything possible. Therefore, engaging the Universidade Federal de Sergipe in 2008 was my first step to fulfil my childhood life dream - to provide better conditions to my family. 

I am extremely honored for being able to provide that help while doing something I love (working with research).

I would like to thank Professor Kátia de Meirelles Felizola Freire, from the Universidade Federal de Sergipe, for giving me the opportunity that changed my life: to work with a global database that contains biological and ecological information for all the described species of the world. My work was to compile data about freshwater and marine fish species from Brazil to feed the FishBase database. Those global biodiversity databases are fundamental for answering important ecological questions. 

While I was doing my bachelor degree, I was awarded a scholarship known as "Ciência sem Fronteiras" (Science without Borders) to spend one year at the University of British Columbia in Canada. I need to thank Professor Daniel Pauly for helping me to get that scholarship and for allowing me to work at the Sea Around Us Project. He is one of the most famous fisheries scientist in the world, co-founder of the FishBase database. 

When I finished my bachelor degree, I wanted to understand better how to measure biodiversity in time and space. I engaged a Master`s degree under the supervision of Professor Sidney Feitosa Gouveia, from the Master`s program in Ecology and Conservation. He gave me the chance to improve my knowledge in ecology, community ecology, macroecology, biodiversity and programming.

After reading some papers and books from Professor Anne Magurran, I was fascinated with her work and her contributions to biodiversity and ecology. Then, one day I had a curiosity question - How did global fisheries exploit multiple facets of biodiversity in the last half century? I knew I could answer this question by using the global reconstructed fisheries exploitation database from the Sea Around Us Project, the trait database from the FishBase, and the species distribution data from the AquaMaps database. Then, I invited Professor Anne Magurran to help me answer this curiosity question. She was very kind to accept me as her PhD student.

Following my PhD, my academic journey crossed the Atlantic once more. For two years, I had the incredible opportunity to work as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the McClain Lab at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, under the supervision of Professor Craig McClain. During this time, I contributed to the Marine Organismal Body Size (MOBS) database and led our global study on the non-uniform resizing of marine molluscs under climate change, which we successfully published in PNAS. 

I am deeply thankful to Craig and all of my colleagues in the lab for sharing their vast knowledge and making me feel so welcome. The McClain Lab provided a remarkably healthy, nurturing, and supportive working environment that allowed me to heal from a challenging moment in my life, while continuing to learn, grow, and make meaningful scientific contributions.

More recently, my journey has brought me to Northern Europe. I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher within the Ecological Synthesis Group at the Lammi Biological Station of the University of Helsinki. Here, I have the privilege of working with Dr. Caio Graco Roza, a supervisor who shares a very similar academic background and personal journey to mine. This collaboration is allowing me to expand my horizons and master many complementary skills as we investigate trait responses across connected forest-lake ecosystems.

As you can see now, the kid from the Brazilian favelas was able to travel on this academic journey only after having the chance to engage with a University and receive some research opportunities. My goal is to keep learning about ecology, biodiversity, ecosystem services, macroevolution, and global fisheries management. 

I still have so many things to learn!! 

Here I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank again everyone who played a key role on my academic path: Professors Katia Freire, Sidney Gouveia, Anne Magurran, Faye Moyes, Tai Kubo, Craig McClain and now Caio Roza at the University of Helsinki. 

Education:

(2017 – 2022) - PhD in Biology. Centre for Biological Diversity, University of St Andrews. 

Advisor: Professor Anne Magurran. 

Thesis title: A half century of change in global marine fish biodiversity. 

(2015 – 2017) - Masters in Ecology and Conservation. 

Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Departamento de Ecologia, Sergipe, Brasil. 

Advisors: Professor Sidney Feitosa Gouveia & Professor Kátia de Meirelles Felizola Freire. 

Dissertation title: Taxonomic and functional beta diversities of freshwater fishes from Brazil. 

(2008 – 2015)  - Bachelors in Fisheries Engineering.

Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Centro de Ciências Agrárias Aplicadas Departamento de Engenharia de Pesca e Aquicultura, Sergipe, Brasil. 

Advisor: Professor Kátia de Meirelles Felizola Freire. 

(2012 – 2013) - Internship period abroad: Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. 

Advisor: Professor Daniel Pauly. 

Monograph title: Analysis of reproductive patterns of fishes from three Large Marine Ecosystems.