I have received the Degree of Aquatic Sciences at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar in 2008, and the Masters degree of Aquatic Resources in 2010, at the Sciences Faculty of Porto University. Since then, I've carried out my academic career with several grants associated with research projets, first in the Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and from 2014 to present, in the Endocrine Disruptors and Emergent Contaminants Group, both on the Interdisciplinary Centre for Marine and Environmental Reserch. Currently a PhD grant holder in the Biology program at Sciences Faculty of Porto University.

Ricardo Daniel Coelho Couto has a degree in Biology and a master’s degree in Applications in Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology (Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto), where his dissertation focused on the use of Bacillus subtilis spores as delivery vehicles for chitinases, for the supplementation of aquafeeds.

Ricardo Figueiredo is a master’s student currently developing his thesis at CIIMAR. He graduated in 2021 in Biology from the Faculty of Science and Technologies of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC).
Currently, he is finishing his Master’s in Functional Biology and Plant Biotechnology at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP). The focus of his master’s thesis is chlorophyll derivatives with anti-obesity activity.

Ricardo Matias has a BSc in Biology and a MSc in Ecology at the University of Coimbra, concluded in 2016 and 2018 respectively. He has since then collaborated with the Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE) and British Antarctic Survey (BAS) on plastic pollution research in the Southern Ocean. Since late 2020, Ricardo became a PhD student of the Animal Sciences doctoral programme at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar (ICBAS), University of Porto. Under the ATLANTIDA project, his work aims to understand the impact of microplastics on the welfare, quality and safety of aquatic products of aquaculture

Ricardo Pereira is a researcher at CIIMAR – Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, currently working at the IPMA, I.P. facilities in Lisbon. He holds a degree in Biology and a Master’s in Toxicology and Ecotoxicology from the University of Aveiro, and a PhD in Animal Science with a specialization in Nutrition for Aquaculture from the University of Porto.
His research focuses on Aquaculture, Animal Physiology, Ecotoxicology, Marine Biology, Metabolomics, and Molecular Biology. He has actively participated in several national and international research projects, including MOBFOOD, Blue Bioeconomy Pact, MarinAlgae4Aqua, ATLANTIDA, and DTO-BioFlow, among others.
His scientific interests encompass topics related to sustainable aquaculture, marine biology, climate change, biochemistry, metabolism, and the circular economy, with a particular focus on innovation aimed at sustainability and circular economy approaches linked to aquatic ecosystems, aquaculture production, and food science.

Ricardo Severino is currently the chief technology officer (CTO) at Vale da Lama Fish Farm. He graduated in Marine Biology, and specialized in Applied Ecology (Master). The guidelines of his research explore the control of aquaculture production systems with particular concern for animal welfare. He has taught three courses on pathology: Fish Pathological Diagnosis in Barcelona; Fish Pathological Diagnosis in Portugal; CEFAS Histopathology in the United Kingdom.

Rita Azeredo is graduated in Aquatic Sciences and holds a PhD degree in Biology granted by the Faculty of Sciences – University of Porto. She is currently an auxiliary researcher in the Aquatic Animal Health team. Her research focus has been to determine immunomodulatory and neuroendocrine effects of amino acids through dietary supplementation in aquafeeds, as a strategy to enhance farmed fish health and welfare. She has a particular interest in tryptophan and the mechanisms through which this amino acid modulates fish brain-gut axis, including neuroendocrine, immune and serotonergic mechanisms.

Rita Lima obtained her degree in Biochemistry from University of Porto, Faculty of Sciences in 2019. Currently, Rita Lima is a Master's degree student of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at University of Porto, Faculty of Pharmacy, and is working on the synthesis of conjugates of chitosan for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications.

Rita Mendes graduated in 2012 in Biological Sciences and Health by the University of Azores, completed her master’s degree in Biology and Water Quality Management in 2014 and her master’s degree in Environmental Contamination and Toxicology in 2017, both in the Univeristy of Porto. Currently, she is a PhD student at the Evolutionary Genomics and Bioinformatics group at CIIMAR. Her research interests focus on the study of cyanobacteria and related toxins, molecular biology, next-generation methods, and environmental toxicology, especially when applied to freshwater systems.

Ana Rita Pais, with BSc and MSc in Biochemistry, is currently a Biochemistry PhD student at University of Aveiro, in collaboration with CIIMAR and CBQF. The main focus of her PhD are the evaluation of the bioaccessibility and bioavailability of different microalgae’s biomass and lipid extracts, the characterization the lipid profile of bioacessible and bioavailable fractions using lipidomics approach, and the evaluation of bioactive potential of these fractions.

Rita F. T. Pires has a PhD in Marine Sciences by the University of Lisbon (2022) and a master degree in Marine Biology (specialization in Marine Ecology and Conservation) by the University of Algarve (2010). Since 2011, as a research assistant at the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere, she has been working on ecology and taxonomy of marine zooplankton. She specialized in the identification of decapod crustacean and fish larvae, and jellyfish. Since 2016, she also collaborates on the Portuguese citizen science program GelAvista, for the monitoring of jellyfish. Her research interests also include biological oceanography, larval dispersal and connectivity processes, biophysical modelling and scientific dissemination. In her PhD, she focused on biophysical modelling studies for decapod larvae for the northeastern Atlantic – western Mediterranean area.

I finished my bachelor’s degree in Biology, at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon in 2023, and I am currently completing my masters’ thesis in Marine Biology, at the University of Algarve. I’m very interested in cetacean conservation and ecology, having recently taken part in cetacean monitoring projects. During my academic career, I acquired relevant skills in this area, such as observing and identifying cetaceans and data analysis.

Rodrigo Franco Alves graduated in Biochemistry, at Faculty of Sciences of University of Porto in 2019. Since then he is part of the team of Histomorphology, Physiopathology and Applied Toxicology Group (CIIMAR), developing projects at Lab of Histology and Embryology (ICBAS). Currently, he is a Master student in Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (FCUP).

Rodrigo Maia has a PhD in Civil Engineering by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP). He is an Associate Professor at FEUP and the Vice-President of EWRA (European Water Resources Association). He is a Research Project coordinator on: hydrology, extreme events, water resources management, fluid mechanics and fluvial rehabilitation. He is involved in research on international rivers basins, namely of the Iberian Peninsula. He is also a Research Group coordinator in several national and international projects and was involved in the creation of a Drought Early Warning Management System for the Portuguese National Water Authority.

Rodrigo Oliveira has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and is currently enrolled in the Master’s in Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology (Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto). As part of his dissertation, he will be focusing on exploring Bacillus spp. antimicrobial compounds as a novel strategy to prevent fish bacterial infections.

Rodrigo Ozorio (RO) has more than 20 years of experience in Aquaculture, special emphasis on the fish nutrition. He holds MSc and PhD degrees from Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR), The Netherlands. RO is the expert in the nutritional dynamics of fish and the economic potential of new aquaculture species based on a set of husbandry and physiological criteria. He participated in 15 national and international projects (overall budget of 2.0 million euros), including four projects as scientific leader dealing with new aquaculture systems and sustainable alternative for intensive marine aquaculture. He supervised 8 PhD theses and 15 MSc theses and he authored over 56 scientific publications.

Rogério Santos da Cunha, PhD In Ecology and Environmental Health, Master in Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development, Specialist in Environmental Education, Bachelor in Tourism. Currently a consultant for public and private institutions.

Rogério Mendes is a researcher at IPMA, I.P. and CIIMAR, qualified with aggregation/qualification for scientific coordination. He carries out activities in the areas of quality and safety of fishery and aquaculture products, valorization of natural extracts from marine sources focused on biotechnology of marine by-products. He has 43 years of scientific experience in the development of European and national research projects. He supervised and guided more than thirty undergraduate, master’s, doctoral and post-doctoral students and the dissemination of the scientific activity resulted in the publication of more than 100 scientific papers in referenced international journals and book chapters.

Ronaldo Sousa has broad interests in aquatic conservation combining empirical and theoretical approaches. Research topics include biological invasions, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, ecosystem engineering, impacts of extreme climatic events and applied conservation mainly using invertebrates as surrogate species. R Sousa received a PhD from the University of Porto (Portugal) in 2008 and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge (UK) and CIIMAR (Portugal) between 2008 and 2009. Since September 2009 he is a Professor at the University of Minho (Portugal) with the exception of September 2013 to September 2014 when he was a FCT Investigator at CIIMAR (Portugal). R Sousa published more than 80 papers (26 as first author) in international peer review journals (including on TREE, Biological Reviews and Fish and Fisheries).

Rosário Martins has a Degree in Biology (1996), a MSc in Hidrobiology (1999) and a PhD in Biology (2006). She is full professor at the School of Health of Polytechnic Institute of Porto (ESS|P.Porto). Her main research interests are focused on the potential application of natural compounds, namely from cyanobacteria, in health areas such as skin care and, more recently, neurodegenerative diseases.

Rúben took his BSc in Biology at FCUP and holds a MSc in Marine Sciences – Marine Resources from ICBAS, both institutions from the University of Porto. Currently he is working as a PhD student at CIIMAR in the Fish ecology and sustainability group, studying the impacts of microplastic contamination on primary producers and associated ecosystem services.

Rui Barbosa has a degree in Environmental Health from the School of Health of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto and a Master’s degree in Risks, Cities and Spatial Planning from the Faculty of Letters of the University of Porto. In his education, he acquired knowledge in the fields of health and environmental sciences, natural sciences and social sciences. He is currently a student in the PhD programme in Environmental Contamination and Toxicology at the Institute
of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar. He is part of the CIIMAR team working on toxic cyanobacteria, with a focus on their evolution in response to climate change.

Rui Figueiredo is a researcher at CIIMAR. His main research interests include natural hazard damage and loss modelling, risk assessment, and risk management, with a focus on hydro-meteorological phenomena. He has (co-)authored, among other publications, over 20 articles on these topics in Web of Science-indexed scientific journals.
Rui graduated in Civil Engineering from FEUP in 2006. Between then and 2013 he worked as a multidisciplinary engineering designer and project manager, having participated in over one hundred national and international engineering projects. In 2015, he obtained his Master’s degree in Risk and Emergency Management from the University School for Advanced Studies IUSS Pavia, Italy. In 2018 he obtained his Doctoral degree from the same institution within the Understanding and Managing Extremes PhD program.
Rui has participated in several research projects, including as Principal Investigator of a 2-year project supported by the highly competitive Disaster Risk Financing Challenge Fund. He has also participated in the development of risk models for several international stakeholders involved in disaster risk management activities.

I am a designer, lecturer and researcher at the University of Leeds, UK, exploring ways to communicate, not only to inform but to generate public engagement as well. In the last few years, I have been expanding my research on gamified mobile applications and ocean literacy and developing research tools to evaluate their impact on students’ motivation and engagement with the ocean.

My present research aims to bridge marine science and design through technology. I investigate more effective communication tools which can convey anthropogenic climate change impacts on marine systems in a way that matters to the people and consequently fosters pro-environmental behaviours.

More info: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rui-Leitao