TEACHING
My teaching philosophy has been shaped by the goal of forming ethical professionals who - irrespective of their race, color, creed, sex, religion, national origin, physical/mental disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity - are aware of climate and social injustices, and work collaboratively to fight against them. I am a teacher who is committed to recruit students from underprivileged backgrounds, guide them along the challenging scientific path, and make them dream big.
COURSES
Students are invited to overcome plant blindness (i.e. underappreciation for the flora) and to see how important plants are for our planet, especially in the context of climate change. Through a series of participative lectures and laboratorial experiments, students explore how plants work and respond to their environment. The course provides an introduction to basic principles of plant hydraulics, plant metabolism and plant development [Learn more].
As sessile organisms, plants cannot migrate in search of more favorable environments for their development. Therefore, plants must exhibit mechanisms to deal with stressful conditions, such as water, saline, light and thermal stresses. In this course, students are exposed to an interdisciplinary (molecular biology, physiology and ecology) and practical (greenhouse experiments) approach to understand the main responses of plants (from molecular to ecosystem level) to those abiotic stressors. [Learn more]
In this course students learn all information and skills necessary to produce seedlings of native species and to create a plant nursery. Students practice all the stages of seedling production: collecting the fruits; processing, cleaning, and storing the seeds; sowing; irrigating and fertilizing the seedlings; and preparing seedlings for sale. At the end the course, students also learn how to build a plant nursery and how to make it a profitable and sustainable source of income. [Learn more]
SHORT-COURSES
How is Global Change affecting the ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services that the humanity depends on to survive? In this short-course, students learn how the functional approach, applied at different ecological scales (individuals, communities and ecosystems), can provide answers to this urgent question. Along the course, students are introduced to key concepts, tools, and trends in Functional Ecology. They also engage in hands-on activities to measure functional traits, compute functional diversity indexes, and identify ecological strategies in plants. [Learn more]
Characterizing the Atlantic Forest Biome
I taught this short-course in 2011, during the "I Simposio da Mata Atlantica" at the Universidade Federal de Sergipe. During this course you will learn: (1) what is the legal definition of Atlantic Forest; (2) which vegetation types comprise the Atlantic Forest biome; (3) what is the conservation status of those different vegetation types; and (4) how the Atlantic Forest is important for all of us! [Click here to download the course slides, in Portuguese]
Coastal Ecosystems in Sergipe
I co-taught this short-course in 2009, during the annual meeting "XI Semana de Biologia de Sergipe - SEBISE" at the Universidade Federal de Sergipe. This course is composed of three lectures that characterizes the biomes present along the Sergipe coast: Mangroves, Restingas, and Atlantic Forests. [Click here download the course slides, in Portuguese]
INVITED TALKS & GUEST LECTURES
Invited talks:
2023 Leaf venation network architecture coordinates functional trade-offs across vein spatial scales: evidence for multiple alternative designs, Waite Research Institute Seminar series, The Univerisity of Adelaide, SA, Australia. PDF and Video
2021 Plant community stability in response to climate change, Post-graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
2020 Zoom with a Scientist Guest Speaker Series, Canyon del Oro High School, Tucson, AZ, US. (I shared my experience as a first-generation, low-income and Latino-women researcher in STEM).
2019 How plants from the Campos de Altitude deal with droughts? Discovering the role of functional diversity and fog, Post-graduate Program in Ecology, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
2018 Getting colder: my scientific trajectory from Brazilian Northeast to the North Pole, Ecosystem Laboratory, University of Oxford, UK.
2017 Science Club. Drought events and plant mortality: species vulnerability vary across contrasting environments, Municipal Elementary School Telêmaco Gonçalves Maia, RJ, Brazil. (I gave talks and developed hands on activities in this low-income public school).
2015 Vulnerability of Tropical Mountain Grasslands to Climate Change, Sarau de Pesquisas do Parque Nacional do Itatiaia, RJ, Brazil.
Guest Lectures:
2015 Biodiversity pattern in species distribution. Ecology – theory and practice, Department of Ecology, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
2013 Germination. Plant physiology, Department of Plant Biology, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
TEACHING ASSISTANT
2015 Ecology, theory and practice (60 hours - Prof. Ph.D. Bruno H P Rosado), Department of Ecology, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil (I assisted students in field-based classes at the Tijuca National Forest).
2013 Plant physiology (60 hours - Prof. Ph.D. Norma Albarello), Department of Plant Biology, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil (I assisted students during lab-based activities and developed and taught classes- lecture and lab activities- on Photosynthesis and Seed germination).
2010 Histology (200 hours - Prof. Ph.D. Elizabeth Ting), Department of Morphology, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, SE, Brazil (I assisted students to visualize and illustrate microscopical structures during lab classes).