I was born in Brazil and since I can remember nature has always wondered me. In high school, while getting a technical degree in Chemistry (2004-2005), I realized that there was no way back and decided to become a biologist.
During my undergraduation, my enthusiasm for research was ecouraged in my first lab studying environmental biomarkers in fishes and sea urchins (2008-2010). It was a great experience, but when I discovered the field of molecular evolution I became fascinated by the idea of aligning Darwin's theory with genetics to understand life! So by the end of my bachelor of Biology (2010), I decided to look for a new lab where I could explore more on the topic. In the following year, I started my Masters studies using mitochondrial DNA sequencing to better understand the phylogenetic relationship among cryptic species of true fruit flies.
By the end of my Masters, while searching for possible evolutionary scenarios to explain my results, I got in touch with the "bee people" which led me to start my PhD (2012-2017) in a new lab, with a whole new world of bioinformatics and behaviour diversity. As someone with no computational background, it was considerably challenging to develop all the necessary skills for the "OMIC" analyses in my thesis, but it was also an amazing journey that added a new (and exciting) dimension to my career!
After all these years, I'm still fascinated about the natural world and I keep searching for new ways to observe and understand it.
