About me
I was born and raised in Recife, Brazil. I could therefore never escape (and in fact I did not want to!) the full majesty of life in the tropics. It is everywhere you look, and everywhere you go. I was particularly obsessed with the leaf-cutter ants that created mighty civilizations in my front yard – to my mother’s absolute dismay, since it meant her much cared-for garden’s days were numbered. After a high school exchange trip to Nova Scotia, Canada, and a subsequent scholarship to Dalhousie University, I moved to Canada in 2012 to pursue a BSc in Agriculture with a major in Environmental Sciences.
During my time at Dalhousie University, I got involved in Dr. Chris Cutler’s entomology laboratory. In my first year, I became a volunteer research assistant, and was then hired as a summer research assistant every summer until I started my Masters. During my MSc, also under Dr. Cutler’s supervision, I was finally in charge of a large-scale project, and it was at that time that I fell in love with statistics. I went from having a self-declared dislike for the subject, to wanting to learn about it more and more, to literally “spreading the good news” to my friends. I quickly became the “stats guy” for my lab and I have maintained this reputation ever since. Aside from stats, I got to learn a lot about ecology, community ecology, and the Carabidae fauna found in lowbush blueberry fields. But as I said earlier, my “gateway drug” into biology was ants, so I went looking for some kind of ant project for my PhD.
It was thus that I came across Dr. Alex Smith on my Google searches for ant researchers in Canada. I promptly sent him an email explaining just how much I love ants and how I would love to work with him. After some email exchanges and video calls, I started my PhD at the University of Guelph under Dr. Smith’s supervision. He somehow convinced me to work with beetles again (rove beetles this time) instead of ants and I was Costa Rica bound, as all of my field work was going to happen there. However, once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, all field trips were cancelled for the foreseeable future. I therefore needed to re-design some of my work, which meant that I was now going to do field work at local woods in Guelph and, wouldn’t you know it, that meant that I was finally going to work with ants! I finished my PhD with all the experience I could have possibly wanted to acquire and having lived experiences that were truly life-changing.
After moving back to Nova Scotia with my family, I found myself working with the wonderful people at the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture, where I am currently employed as the Living Lab Coordinator. In this capacity, I coordinate the co-development and implementation of best management practices in agricultural fields with producers, researchers, industry, and government in Nova Scotia. Here, I put all the training in ecology that I received over the years at the service of those who rely on healthy ecosystems for their livelihoods, which as you may imagine, is a very rewarding line of work.