I have always been fascinated by nature and all its wonders. I graduated in Biological/Environmental sciences in Brazil, focusing on terrestrial ecology. My first encounter with marine ecology was during a semester abroad in Puerto Rico, where I investigated epibionts of the sea cucumber Holothuria mexicana. Since then, I've been hooked, continuing to investigate the sea's mysteries during my Master's degree. For my thesis, I studied phytoplankton growth and grazing rates under increased temperature.
As I have an infinite amount of curiosity, after my master's degree I set up to work on many different conservation and outreach programs in Central America. I have worked with sea turtle ecology, aquatic birds communities, predator-prey interactions between jaguars and sea turtles, general biodiversity assessments and environmental education, inspiring the next generation of biologists. I started to feel the Call of Science again and decided to join the Reef Genomics laboratory, at KAUST. It is my first time delving into the world of genomics, and I am excited to investigate the effects of ocean acidification on Stylophora pistillata microbiome, my research here as a VSRP student.