Introductions

About the blog

The main intent of this blog is to allow me to reflect on a topic that I worked on during the previous week. It can act as a PhD journal and a catalog of my experiences as I approach the end run of my graduate studies. How much I will stay on the topic remains to be seen. Memetic is used here in its original sense described on Dawkins’ Selfish Gene. The genetic basis of a given trait is a common scientific pursuit for geneticists, aiming to understand the number, effect, and identity of genes underlie a phenotypic trait. My goal is to reflect on my weekly routine and take a look at the memes, the ideas and challenges that arise as I work on my research.

About the author

I am a Brazilian biologist interested in evolutionary biology and biodiversity. As an undergraduate student and a Master student, I work on phylogeography of birds from the Atlantic Forest. During my PhD student I am studying population and quantitative genetics underlying rapid adaptation, mainly the genetic basis and interactions governing melanism in D. melanogaster. My research has an experimental component handling live animals, basic bench work to acquire genetic data, and bioinformatics to analyze such data. Requiring knowledge on the basic biology of the organism and trait being studied, molecular biology and genetics, population genetics and statistics, as well as computer sciences.

I also believe that my identities shape our interactions with other researchers and my approach to science. I am a queer, black, Latino, non-US citizen male researcher. I am a first-generation college student, and the first person in my family to pursue an academic career. In addition to my scientific pursuit, I always strive to foster community interactions in an attempt to increase my sense of belonging to a vastly foreign environment. I have been part of several university groups, assisting in the organization of events on campus, participating in administrative committees and groups fighting for students rights within the university (the realization that administrators and faculty or not always aligned with students goals was quite shocking at first, true in Brazil and in the US).