Principal Investigator

Prof. Raquel Peixoto

Associate Professor of Marine Science

Research Interests: Microbial Ecology, Environmental Microbiology, Marine Probiotics, Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMCs), Resilience, Coral Restoration, Global Change, Microbiology

Research Scientists

Dr. Francisca C. García

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Marine Microbial Ecology, Microbiology, Metabolic Ecology, Size Structure, Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, Trait-based Ecology, Climate Change, Ecology and Evolution

Dr. Neus Garcias-Bonet

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Marine Ecology, Microbial Ecology, Host-associated Microbiomes, Blue Carbon Ecosystems, Climate Change, Biogeochemistry

Dr. Helena Villela

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Microbial Ecology, Coral Microbiology, Marine Probiotics, Marine Symbiosis, Chemosynthesis, Applied Microbiology

Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr. Barbara Ribeiro

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Climate Change, Ocean acidification, Sponge ecology, Microbial Ecology, Marine Probiotics

Dr. Yusuf C. El-Khaled

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Physiological Ecology, Physiological Adaptation, Comparative Physiology, Marine Ecology, Stress Physiology, Ecophysiology

Dr. Phillipe Magalhães

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Microbial Ecology, Coral Microbiology, Marine Probiotics, Marine Symbiosis, Host-microbiome interactions

Dr. Erika Santoro

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Marine Microbiology, Marine Microbial Ecology, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Marine Probiotics, Biorremediation, Host-microbiome interactions

Dr. Eslam Osman

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Corals Resilience, Microbial Ecology, Functional Microbiome, Corals Ecology

Ph.D. Students

Marco Casartelli

PhD Student

Research Interests: Coral Spawning, Population genetics, Coral microbiome, Millepora, Red Sea

Adam Barno

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Marine Microbial Ecology, Coral Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Marine Probiotics, Epigenetics

Ahmed Alsaggaf

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Applied Microbiology, Microbial Ecology, Corals, Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMCs), Marine microbes, Red Sea

Nathalia Delgadillo

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Microbial communities, Deep-sea ecology, Biotechnology, Bioremediation

Inês Goncalves Raimundo

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Marine Metagenomics, Marine Microbial Ecology, Microbial Cultivation, Functional and comparative genomics, Blue Biotechnology

Master's Students

Ali Alabyadh

Master's Student

Research Interests: Carbonate Sedimentology, Petrography, Red Sea, Coral reefs, Marine Ecology

Giovanna Sabini-Leite

Master's Student

Research Interests: Coral Microbiology, Coral ecology, Marine microbes, Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMCs), Symbiont transmission, Evolution, Resilience, Climate Change, Vitamins

Laura Beenham

Master's Student

Research Interests: Microbiology, Coral ecology, Coral resilience, Marine Microbial Ecology, Functional Microbiome, Marine biology, Marine Probiotics, Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMC's)

Pedro Moreira Cardoso

Master's Student

Research Interests: Conservation Biology, Microbial Ecology, Molecular Biology, Marine Ecology, Coral Physiology

Research Group Staff

Miguel Viegas

Research Specialist

Vera Costa

Research Specialist

Research Interests: Microbiology, Applied Microbiology, Conservation and rehabilitation, Integrated ecosystem management

Ghaida Aljuaid

Microbiologist Lab Technician

Faisal T. Qadi

Microbiologist Lab Technician

Research Interests: Microbiology, Marine biology

Joao Curdia, Ph.D.

Research Technician

Research Interests: Ecology, Zoology, Ecology of macrobenthic communities, Succession in ecology, Population dynamics of marine species, Data analysis of biological datasets, Diversity

Visitors

Megan Dear

Visiting Student

Research Interests: Coral Restoration, Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMCs), Climate Change, Coral Microbiology, Marine Ecology

Kieran Carpenter

Visiting Master Student (VSRP)

Research Interests: Symbiosis, Coral Restoration, Probiotics, Microbiology

Mareike de Breuyn

VSRP Student

Research Interests: Marine Ecology, Conservation Biology, Reef Restoration, Artificial Reefs, Coral Physiology, Nitrogen Cycling

Malte Ostendarp

VSRP Student

Research Interests: Coral ecology, Coral Physiology, Nitrogen Cycling, Ocean warming, Resilience, Cassiopea sp.

Morgan Bennett-Smith

Underwater Media and Communications Specialist

Past members

Matilde Marques

PhD (visiting) student

Research Interests: Octocoral virome, Marine Probiotics, Host-microbiome interactions, Comparative genomics, Applied Microbiology

Fluvio Modolon da Silva

PhD (visiting) student

Research Interests: Microbial Ecology, Coral reefs, Deep-Water Coral, Genomics, Microbial Cultivation

Claudia E. L. Hill

PhD (visiting) student

Dr. Susana Carvalho

Senior ​​Research Scientist

Research Interests: Marine Ecology, marine biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, Integrated ecosystem management, Ecosystem health assessment, Conservation and rehabilitation

Vivian Bonacker

VSRP Student

Research Interests: Coral ecology, Applied Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Coral Physiology, Coral Restoration

Livia Anne Hott

VSRP Student

Research Interests: Coral reef ecology, Denitrification