About the author

A. Márcia BARBOSA

PUBLICATIONS: See my publication list here or at Publons/ResearcherID, Scopus, ORCID, Google Scholar, or ResearchGate. Article PDFs are available here — you can contact me (at the bottom of this page) for the password. You can also find me on GitHub and on Twitter.

COURSES: See my calendar here.

PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS: My research interests include biogeography, macroecology, species distribution modelling, biodiversity patterns, and conservation. I’ve worked mainly on terrestrial vertebrates, but also on marine fish, invertebrates, and plants (both terrestrial and marine). I’m particularly interested in integrating different scientific fields in multidisciplinary approaches and in developing and applying innovative methodologies, or adapting those traditionally used in other fields. I’m a promoter of transparency and best practices, free and open-source software, and of time-, cost- and energy-efficient methods for research and its applications.

WORK HISTORY: I got a Licentiate degree in Biology at Porto University (Portugal, 1999) and did a graduation thesis on otter distribution modelling in the Iberian Peninsula (2000). I was then hired to do biogeographic analyses of the Spanish mammal atlas (2001). I subsequently got a PhD studentship and doctorated at Málaga University (Spain, 2006) with a Thesis on biogeographic relationships between predators, prey and parasites (including species distribution modelling and comparative phylogeography) in the Iberian Peninsula. Afterwards, I was hired by the University of Extremadura at Cáceres (Spain, 2006-2007) to work on red deer phylogeography and spatial ecology. I then got a 6-year FCT post-doctoral fellowship (2008-2013) co-hosted by Imperial College London (UK) and the University of Évora (Portugal), in which I studied wide-scale distributional and phylogeographical patterns of terrestrial vertebrates in the Mediterranean Basin. By that time, I was awarded a 2-year Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship, but I was meanwhile hired for 5 years (2014-2018) as a Research Associate (‘Investigador FCT’) at CIBIO/InBIO – University of Évora (Portugal), working on maximization of large-scale efficiency in biodiversity management and conservation (see my finished research project), with a large scientific production including some top downloaded papers. I also coordinated (and built the interactive maps for) the Atlas of Mammals in Portugal, won a prize for the internationalization of scientific production, and was featured in a book on Portuguese women in science. I’ve (co-)taught BSc, MSc and/or PhD classes at six different universities in Spain (UMalaga, UExtremadura, UCLM-Toledo), UK (Imperial College) and Portugal (UPorto, UEvora), as well as at specialized training companies such as Physalia Courses, Transmitting Science and PR Statistics.

AMBarbosa_byCireniaArias

Sketch: Cirenia Arias (https://twitter.com/cireniasketches)

PRESENT: After being laid off by my former university, I started working as a freelancer in biogeography training, consulting and services, with several international courses as well as R programming, modelling and mapping tasks for R&D projects in different countries. I am also an honorary collaborator of the Spatial Biology Lab at CICGE (Centre for Research in Geo-Space Sciences). I develop free software tools, I’m a reviewer for several international journals, associate editor of Animal Conservation, and former associate editor of Ecology and Evolution. I’ve also reviewed research projects for the Czech Science Foundation, the National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation (Kazakhstan) and the National Science Centre (Poland).

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES: All is not about work! To stay sane and keep my horizons broad, I also dedicate time to volunteering (mainly at the food bank against hunger and at the local dog shelter), urban sketching, a traditional drums band, a polyphonic choir, traditional dancing, cyclotouring and volleyball.

TO CONTACT ME: