I am currently Research Collaborator at the National Museum of Natural History - Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., and conduct my research as Postdoc at the Museum of Science and Technology of Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre.

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I am a taxonomist, phylogeneticist, and evolutionary biologist interested in understanding the general patterns of diversification and evolutionary history of recent groups of Neotropical freshwater fishes. My overarching research goal seeks understanding the diversification patterns and the ecological and evolutionary processes that, in combination, have shaped the extraordinary diversity of fishes in the Neotropical region. Although my general interest is in fishes, I primarily study catfishes from two distinct families, the armored Loricariidae and the driftwood Auchenipteridae. Through analyses of phylogenetic and phenotypic patterns of divergence, these families provide strong models to understand the broader diversity of Neotropical fishes. The paleogeography context together the identification of morphological changes in a historical context are essential to evaluate questions of how, where, and when the siluroid irradiations occurred in order to recognize the diversification patterns of Neotropical fishes.

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My research program spans the continuum from basic taxonomy to evolutionary questions based on phylogenetic comparative methods and diversification models to understand the morphological evolution involved in the transitions of groups of catfishes with distinct ecological roles and also underlying implications for diversification rate and species accumulation through time.

I also have a passion for field work, fish photography, creating maps of fish geographic distributions, and to teaching molecular systematics labs.