With emphasis on mathematical modelling of biological systems, I am a biologist by training. I did a master’s degree course on Statistics Applied to Biology and Public Health at Lisbon University, Portugal and I obtained a double European Ph.D. degree in 2012, been awarded a Ph.D. title in Life Sciences, from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and in Population Biology, from the University of Lisbon, Portugal.

Although I have experience in laboratory and field epidemiology, I have been working on Mathematical Epidemiology during the last 14 years of my scientific career, always based in mathematics departments, but in close collaboration with laboratories and Bureaus of epidemiology.

I am trained in nonlinear dynamics, bifurcation analysis and biostatistics, and my scientific interests address significant mathematical problems and fundamental questions in public health, which require a highly multidisciplinary approach.

I am currently based at the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM) as founder and leader of the research group “Mathematical and Theoretical Biology” (MTB) which currently counts 12 researchers from all scientific levels.

My professional career started in the public health sector. As head of public health laboratory, my laboratory was able to provide epidemiological support to complex projects in order to enhance evidence-based decision-making. This was the point in my professional career where I decided to follow courses in biostatistics applied to biomedical research at Science Faculty at Lisbon University, Portugal (FCUL). I soon joined the Center for Mathematics and Fundamental Applications at FCUL, working at the “Biomathematics and Statistics Group” working on my Ph.D. project “Rich dynamics in multi-strain models: non-linear dynamics and deterministic chaos in dengue fever epidemiology”.

Still, within the “Biomathematics and Statistics Group” at CMAF FCUL, I enjoyed my first postdoctoral appointment (5 years), from 2012 to 2016, financed by the European project “Dengue Research Framework for
Resisting Epidemics in Europe (DENFREE). After that, I moved to the Center for Mathematics and Applications at Nova University of Lisbon as a post-doctoral researcher for two years. I have spent a short period based at University of Foggia, Italy, at the Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Chirurgiche as an EPIET ECDC fellow and from 2019 to 2020 I was a Marie Curie Fellow at the Laboratory of Mathematical and Computational Biology, Department of Mathematics at University of Trento, Italy.