Trained as a theoretical biologist, I received my Master’s degree in Statistics Applied to Biology and Public Health at Lisbon University in 2007. With emphasis on applied mathematics, I obtained a double European Ph.D degree in 2012 – Ph.D in Life Sciences by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Ph.D in Population Biology by the University of Lisbon.

With long laboratory and field epidemiology experience, I have been working on mathematical epidemiology since 2006, always based in mathematical research institutes in close collaboration with public health authorities.

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.

Since 2020 I am based at the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM – Bilbao), Spain, where I lead the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology (MTB) group as an Ikerbasque & Ramon y Cajal Researcher.

If you are curious about my trajectory: 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 2021 I was a Marie Curie Fellow at the Laboratory of Mathematical and Computational Biology, Department of Mathematics at University of Trento, Italy.