Rita F. T. Pires

Rita F. T. Pires has a PhD in Marine Sciences by the University of Lisbon (2022) and a master degree in Marine Biology (specialization in Marine Ecology and Conservation) by the University of Algarve (2010). Since 2011, as a research assistant at the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere, she has been working on ecology and taxonomy of marine zooplankton. She specialized in the identification of decapod crustacean and fish larvae, and jellyfish. Since 2016, she also collaborates on the Portuguese citizen science program GelAvista, for the monitoring of jellyfish. Her research interests also include biological oceanography, larval dispersal and connectivity processes, biophysical modelling and scientific dissemination. In her PhD, she focused on biophysical modelling studies for decapod larvae for the northeastern Atlantic - western Mediterranean area.