CV & Publications

01/02/2017 to 20/04/2023: PhD in Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution (BIODIV) – Joint doctoral programme from the University of Lisbon and the University of Porto, at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) (Grant ID: PD/BD/128349/2017 and COVID/BD/152111/2021). Thesis title: The Role of Spatial Structure in the Process of Mate-Choice Copying. Unanimously Approved with Distinction and Honours

01/01/2013 to 01/09/2016: PhD in Biology – Ethology at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (replaced by the BIODIV PhD in 2017). Thesis title: Mate choice copying generalization: copying phenotypes instead of individuals. Understanding the mechanisms and the effects of mate choice copying generalization on individuals and populations, using the Guppy (Poecilia reticulata) as model. This thesis was not funded, so I switched to the BIODIV doctoral programme when I got the FCT grant and carried part of my work done for this thesis. In the curricular year of this PhD I took the courses of Statistical Models and Stochastic Modelling and Optimization.

01/09/2007 to 01/07/2011: Masters in Conservation Biology at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. Thesis title: Comportamento Reprodutor de Rapinas Diurnas em Cativeiro na Coudelaria de Alter Real e em Vaiamonte (Reproductive Behaviour of Captive Diurnal Raptors in Alter Stud Farm and Vaiamonte). Result: Very Good (17 out of 20)

26/09/2004 – 07/07/2007: Graduation in Biology, Branch of Environmental Biology – Terrestrial sub-branch at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon Result: 14 out of 20

03/06/2025 to Current: Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Science and Environment of the University of Saint Joseph, Macao, under the Funding Scheme of Macao for Science and Technology R&D Talent from the Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT). I am currently working at Prof. David Gonçalves' lab to understand the role of gut microbiota in the development of social behaviour in fish.

07/05/2021 to 31/01/2022: External PhD student, where I volunteered to work with zebrafish (Danio rerio) artificial selection and social behaviour at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC).

01/06/2021: Accreditation from the Portuguese General Directorate for Food and Veterinary (DGAV) as a person that is allowed to execute scientific procedures in animals, namely small rodents and fish.

08/03/2020 to 28/05/2020: Visiting scholar at the University of Oklahoma, where I planned to study social learning and mate-choice of the sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna) with researcher Prof. Ingo Schlupp, but it was shortened due to COVID restrictions.

27/11/2017 to 31/012018: External PhD student, where, as part of the doctoral Programme,  I to worked with zebrafish (Danio rerio) artificial selection and social behaviour for 60 hours at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC).

10/03/2018 to 11/03/2018: Main instructor in the second edition of “Introdução à Linguagem de Programação R” (Introduction to the R Programming Language), part of the cE3c and NEBFCUL short courses 2017/2018, in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon.

01/09/2017 to 01/12/2017: Lab rotation with researcher Dr. Luis Borda-de-Água for my doctoral Programme, where I learned how to program using STAN, JAGS, and WinBUGS three computer languages dedicated to Bayesian statistics. This work resulted in a scientific publication.

28/10/2017 to 29/10/2017: Main instructor in the “Introdução à Linguagem de Programação R” (Introduction to the R Programming Language), part of the cE3c and NEBFCUL short courses 2017/2018, in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon.

04/03/2016 to 01/04/2016: Visiting scholar at the University of Zurich, where I worked with researcher Prof. Hanna Kokko to create an individual-based model for my PhD thesis.

20/05/2014 to 15/11/2014: Visiting scholar at the University of Oklahoma, where I worked with Guppy’s mate-choice with researcher Prof. Ingo Schlupp.

01/12/2014 to 20/06/2015: Integration in the project "Biodiversity on oceanic islands: towards a unified theory" (FCT Project PTDC/BIA-BIC/119255/2010) where I learned how to model simulations of phylogenetic trees and speciation.

01/09/2009 to 31/08/2011: Biologist with environmental educator duties at the Falconry section of the Alter Stud Farm hired under the project “Conservar & Educar” financed by the European Union (Project In-Alentejo-04-0331-FEDER-00214), under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). With these position I have gained some communications skills with the overall public, given that I was often given the task of making presentations about the Falconry section and its birds to the visiting public.

27/08/2007 to 08/09/2007: Volunteer field work for the Conservation of Birds of Prey in Vale do Côa.

22/03/2004 to 01/01/2017: Volunteer at the Lisbon Zoo for more than 12 years, where I learned to interact with various species of animals dedicated to educational shows, including birds (e.g., parrots, birds of prey, toucans), mammals (e.g., peccary, armadillo), and reptiles (e.g,, pythons, tortoises, caimans).

19/02/2018 to 23/02/2018: Participation in the advance course “Urban Ecology: the green within the city” by the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c)

13/12/2017 to 15/12/2017: Participation in the advance course “Scripting and Command line tricks for Biologists” by CIBIO In-BIO

06/02/2017 to 10/02/2017: Participation in the advance course “Hands on Functional Diversity: from Ecological Indicators to Ecosystem Services” by the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c)

19/12/2016 to 22/12/2016: Participation in the advance course “Island Biogeography” by the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c)

14/04/2014: Certification in the “Laboratory Animal Science Theoretical Course” by the Portuguese Society of Laboratory Animal Science (SPCAL), which along with the practical counterpart attended in 2010, provides the theoretical education in Laboratory Animal Science (LAS) as recommended by the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations (FELASA) for category B, and provided me with an Accreditation from the Portuguese Competent Authority.

25/06/2012 to 29/06/2012: Participation in the advance course “Practical course on Phylogenetics” by the Centre for Environmental Biology (CBA)

20/02/2012 to 24/02/2012: Participation in the advance course “Practical course on Phylogeography” by the Centre for Environmental Biology (CBA)

24/05/2010 to 26/05/2010: Participation in the “Laboratory Animal Science Practical Course” by the Portuguese Society of Laboratory Animal Science (SPCAL)

19/01/2008 to 20/01/2008: Participation in the course “Knowing the birds by the Bones” by the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds (SPEA)

05/06/2008 to 08/06/2008: Participation in the 3rd Course of Identification, Biology and Conservation of Birds of Prey by the Association “Transumância e Natureza” (ATN)

27/08/2007 to 31/07/2007: Participation in the Workshop “iSig – Initiation to Geographic information systems” by the Department of Geology of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon

Sapage, M., Santos, M., Matos, M., Schlupp, I., Varela, S.A.M. 2024.  Mate-choice copying accelerates species range expansion. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 291:20241201 http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.1201

ŸSapage, M., Varela, S.A.M. & Kokko, H. 2021. Social learning by mate‐choice copying increases dispersal and reduces local adaptation. Functional Ecology, 35(3): 705–716. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13735

ŸSapage, M. & Varela, S.A.M. 2020. Two research avenues for future mate-choice copying studies: a comment on Davies et al.. Behavioral Ecology, 31(6), 1291–1292. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/araa075  (Invited commentary)

ŸCarvalho, C., Varela, S.A.M., Bastos, L.F.B., Órfão, I., Beja, V., Sapage, M., Marques, T.A., Knight, A. & Vicente, L. 2019. The Relevance of In Silico, In Vitro and Non-human Primate Study-based Approaches to Clinical Research on Major Depressive Disorder. Alternatives to Laboratory Animals 47(3–4): 128–139. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261192919885578

ŸBorda-de-Água, L., Ascensão, F., Sapage, M., Barrientos, R. & Pereira, H.M. (2019) On the identification of mortality hotspots in linear infrastructures. Basic and Applied Ecology, 34: 25–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2018.11.001

ŸSantos, M., Sapage, M., Matos, M. and Varela, S. A. M. (2017), Mate-choice copying: A fitness-enhancing behavior that evolves by indirect selection. Evolution, 71(6): 1456–1464. https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.13235

Sapage M., Varela S.A.M, Matos M, Santos M., Kokko H. & Schlupp I. 15-16 December 2022. Social learning by Mate-Choice Copying Increases Dispersal and the Speed of Range Expansion. XVIII National Meeting of Evolutionary Biology (ENBE) from the Portuguese Association of Evolutionary Biology (APBE). Braga, Portugal.

Sapage M., Varela S.A.M, Matos M, Santos M., Kokko H. & Schlupp I. 9-10 December 2022. Social learning by Mate-Choice Copying Increases Dispersal and the Speed of Range Expansion. XIX Congress of the Portuguese Ethological Society (SPE), Oeiras, Portugal - Winner of the prize Vitor Almada for Best Student Oral Presentation

Sapage M., Varela S.A.M., Kokko, H. 2-4 May 2019. The Effects of Mate-Choice Copying on Population Dispersal. BIODIV Annual Meeting ’19. CIBIO-InBIO, Vairão, Portugal

Sapage M., Varela S.A.M., Vicente L. & Schlupp I. 9-10 October 2015. An Evaluation to the Standard Mate-Choice Copying Experimental Protocol. XII Nacional Congress of Ethology, SPE 2015. Lisbon, Portugal

Sapage M., Varela S.A.M., Vicente L. & Schlupp I. 19-20 June 2015. An Evaluation to the Standard Mate-Choice Copying Experimental Protocol. cE3c Annual Meeting, 2015. Lisbon, Portugal

Sapage M., Varela S.A.M., Vicente L., Wagner R.H., Danchin É. 24-25 October 2013. Habitat Copying predicts highly aggregated colonies in birds. 10th Nacional Congress of Ethology, SPE 2013. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Lisbon, Portugal

Sapage M., Santos M., Schlupp  I., Varela S.A.M. 5-6 December 2024. A Systematic Review on Theoretical Models of Mate-Choice Copying. Nacional Congress of Ethology, SPE 2024, Lisbon, Portugal.

Sapage M., Varela S.A.M, Matos M, Santos M., Kokko H. & Schlupp I. 13-14 December 2023. Social learning by Mate-Choice Copying Increases Dispersal and the Speed of Range Expansion. ASAB Winter Meeting from the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Sapage M., Varela S.A.M, Matos M, Santos M., Kokko H. & Schlupp I. 13-14 December 2023. Social learning by Mate-Choice Copying Increases Dispersal and the Speed of Range Expansion. ASAB Winter Meeting from the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Sapage M., Varela S.A.M., Matos M. & Santos M., 14-15 November 2019.Mate-Choice Copying Can Hamper Range Expansion Through an Environmental Gradient. XV Encontro Nacional de Biologia Evolutiva (The Portuguese Meeting of Evolutionary Biology), CIIMAR, Matosinhos, Portugal – Winner of the prize for Best Poster

Sapage M., Varela S.A.M. & Hanna Kokko, 30 July – 4 August 2017. Does Mate-Choice Copying Promote Dispersal In Heterogeneous Environments? Behaviour 2017, a joint meeting of the 35th International Ethological Conference (IEC) and the 2017 Summer Meeting of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB). Estoril, Portugal

Sapage M., Hanna Kokko & Varela S.A.M., 13-14 October 2016. Modeling mate-choice copying generalization with genotype-by-environment interactions. 13th Nacional Congress of Ethology, SPE 2016. Lisbon, Portugal

Sapage M., Hanna Kokko & Varela S.A.M., 27-28 June 2016. Modeling mate-choice copying generalization with genotype-by-environment interactions. cE3c Annual Meeting, 2016. Lisbon, Portugal

Sapage M., Varela S.A.M., Vicente L., Wagner R.H. and Danchin É. 21 December 2012. Testing the "Commodity Selection Hypothesis": can conspecific cues be the key to the evolution of coloniality in birds? VIII National Meeting of Evolutionary Biology. Gulbenkain Foundation, Oeiras, Portugal.

Sapage M., Varela S.A.M., Vicente L., Wagner R.H. and Danchin É. 12-13 April 2012. Testing the "Commodity Selection Hypothesis": can conspecific cues be the key to the evolution of coloniality in birds? (Ongoing Project) 9th National Congress of Ethology from the Portuguese Society of Ethology. CBA, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Portugal.

10/12/2022: Vitor Almada award for the best student oral communication at XIX Congress of the Portuguese Ethological Society (SPE), Oeiras, Portugal

15/11/2019: Best poster award at XV Encontro Nacional de Biologia Evolutiva (The Portuguese Meeting of Evolutionary Biology), CIIMAR, Matosinhos, Portugal

Biology (2025)

Acta Ethologica (2024, 2025)

Humans (2024)

Frontiers in Psychology (2024)

Scientific Reports (2023)

Animal Behaviour (2020)