I grew up in Brazil and graduated in biology from the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro. At that time, I started an internship at the National Museum with the group of researchers leading the Project Coral Vivo, a coral reef conservation project. This time was very decisive in my career. I was obsessed with cnidarians since taking invertebrate zoology classes. Even though I had a lot of fun doing an internship studying frogs in the Atlantic forest, I had a very hard time remembering their species names while coral species names came really easy to my mind. This contact with the ocean, and learning about corals and their very ancient evolutionary history very much drew me into the field of evolutionary biology. Diversity of forms in the ocean is just fascinating!
These experiences were so valuable. During all this early beginning, I had professors from abroad that inspired me to reach for an international program for my doctoral degree. I grew up in a very tiny city called Araruama, where my parents still live in front of a lagoon, but I had the chance to work as a lab technician sometime after my masters in Arraial do Cabo. I never thought I would one day travel outside of Brazil, but that took me to Duke University for a whole month.
Later on, I was awarded a full doctorate scholarship through the Brazilian program Science Without Borders. I cannot emphasize how great of a funding source that was. They covered the costs for sending materials and applying for up to 5 American universities. I was so fortunate then to be accepted to UC Santa Barbara. My time in California gave me an intense learning experience, both personal and professional. Pushing my boundaries to get to live a new language, a new culture, a new educational system, made me appreciate the best of both worlds I came to know.
With being selected for a fantastic postdoctoral fellowship from YIBS at Yale University, I could extend my time in the US a bit further for academic training with the Dunn Lab. I now understand what people mean by snow storms. I've always had sunshine and warm weather all year until I moved to New Haven (right before the Winter). I now know snow boots matter, and to never think twice about getting a parka. I was very surprised to see my neighbor had this fancy mower for snow, like a grass mower, but for snow.
Right now I returned to Brazil for maternity leave but I will be back to the United States in the near future.
These experiences were so valuable. During all this early beginning, I had professors from abroad that inspired me to reach for an international program for my doctoral degree. I grew up in a very tiny city called Araruama, where my parents still live in front of a lagoon, but I had the chance to work as a lab technician sometime after my masters in Arraial do Cabo. I never thought I would one day travel outside of Brazil, but that took me to Duke University for a whole month.
Later on, I was awarded a full doctorate scholarship through the Brazilian program Science Without Borders. I cannot emphasize how great of a funding source that was. They covered the costs for sending materials and applying for up to 5 American universities. I was so fortunate then to be accepted to UC Santa Barbara. My time in California gave me an intense learning experience, both personal and professional. Pushing my boundaries to get to live a new language, a new culture, a new educational system, made me appreciate the best of both worlds I came to know.
With being selected for a fantastic postdoctoral fellowship from YIBS at Yale University, I could extend my time in the US a bit further for academic training with the Dunn Lab. I now understand what people mean by snow storms. I've always had sunshine and warm weather all year until I moved to New Haven (right before the Winter). I now know snow boots matter, and to never think twice about getting a parka. I was very surprised to see my neighbor had this fancy mower for snow, like a grass mower, but for snow.
Right now I returned to Brazil for maternity leave but I will be back to the United States in the near future.
