I am a PhD student at the University of the Azores, under the supervision of Dr. Telmo Morato. My motivation to contribute to the conservation of marine ecosystems led me to the Azores in 2016, where I joined the Azores Deep Sea Ecology Research Group to develop the research for my master thesis. Since then, I have been involved in the team's efforts to uncover some of the deep-sea paradigms in order to find the most appropriate management tools to protect it from the many threats it faces.

I am interested at advancing our limited quantitative understanding of how perturbations, most notably fishing and climate change, impact the structure, functioning and dynamics of deep-sea and open-ocean ecosystems. I am particularly keen to quantify, the effects these drivers pose in the state of marine ecosystems, and also the impact networks of marine protected areas might produce at the ecosystem scale. Trophic models (Ecopath with Ecosim and Ecospace) and R programming language are my daily basis tools. The ecological information, generated from the trophic modelling tools, have informed Systematic Conservation Planning in the Azores. My professional experience includes participation in H2020 projects, namely Discardless, MISTIC SEAS 3 and iAtlantic. I also participated in the Lenfest Ocean Program while a visiting scientist at the University of Florida. During this period, I assisted in the development of trophic models to identify Ecological Reference Points, useful for the management of the Atlantic Menhaden fishery on the east coast of the USA.