​Currently, I'm a postdoc in the Museu Nacional (MNRJ) / UFRJ in Brazil, working on the systematics of and biogeography of deep-sea sponges of the Western Atlantic. I am also an associate research at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History (SI-NMNH), in Washington DC (US).

 

My research goals are  (1)  to enhance the knowledge of  deep-sea sponge biodiversity and   (2)  to clarify the evolution of deep-sea sponge geographic ranges and diversity using genetic tools.

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I began my career working with taxonomy of shallow water sponges in Bahia (Universidade Federal da Bahia - Brazil) with Dr. Carla Menegola (undergraduate and master’s degrees). My master degree was on the subject of systematics and biogeography of freshwater sponges of a genus (Metania) with circum-tropical distribution (study published in the journal Invertebrates Systematics; link). After that, I joined TAXPO team to pursue a Ph.D under the supervision of Dr. Eduardo Hajdu (Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro - Brazil) studying the systematics of deep-sea sponges of the Southwestern Atlantic. Such in-depth study of wonderful and previously unexplored fauna has resulted in the description of 18 new species and some taxonomic considerations with redescriptions, in partnership with Dr. Gisele Lôbo-Hajdu and Dr. Thiago de Paula (both from UERJ, Brazil), as well as Dr. Allen Collins (Smithsonian, USA).

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