Brief bio
I am a postdoctoral researcher working with Dr. Naoki Masuda and in close collaboration with Dr. Jiaxiang Zhang on the characterization and classification of data from people with epilepsy. In my research I use mathematical models and computational tools to advance our understanding of epilepsy and develop new methods to diagnose and treat this neurological disorder. I am based at the University of Bristol and Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre.
I graduated with a BSc in Physical Engineering (2008) and obtained a MSc in Physics (2010), both at the University of Aveiro (Portugal). Then I did a PhD in Physics applied to Theoretical Neuroscience (in a joint doctoral program from the Universities of Minho, Aveiro and Porto, Portugal, 2014). My research in neuroscience started with my master’s thesis, in which I studied stochastic resonance in neuronal networks. During my PhD under the supervision of Prof. Alexander Goltsev, I studied phase transitions, critical phenomena, bifurcations, and nonlinear phenomena in neuronal networks. In the last year of my PhD I became interested in epilepsy, particularly on how to anticipate epileptic seizures. In 2015 I joined the group of Prof. John Terry at the University of Exeter, where I studied the mechanisms of seizure emergence as well as a mathematical framework to quantitatively predict the brain regions most responsible for seizure generation. In my spare time I enjoy reading literature, and I write science popularization articles as a hobby. I have published a science popularization book (in Portuguese), Para Além dos Ombros de Gigantes.