By · No · Means · Average
Work in progress
I always wanted to be a scientist — until I became one. Followed by a set of career changes that only look deliberate in hindsight. This is my “CV”, read each beat the LinkedIn way, or flip to the director's commentary for the honest version.
BSc in Biology, University of Lisbon
The scientific foundation the rest of this timeline is built on. A complete sweep of how living things work, from molecules to ecosystems.
- 2007Awarded an early research grant: a project including fieldwork (electric fishing) and cell culture in the lab.
- 2008Selected Molecular Biology as area of specialisation.
Still know the 7 classes of molluscs by heart.
Proper use of neural tokens
MSc in Evolutionary Biology, Utrecht University
A second specialisation, this time in evolution. My first real autonomous scientific experience was focused on how reproductive cells protect their genome from mutation, so life passes on fewer of its mistakes.
- 2010Supported my stay abroad by delivering mail for DHL and collecting empty glasses at a local pub.
- 2015The first scientific paper ever to have my name on it.
PhD in Neuroscience, Champalimaud Foundation
With yet another change of field, I committed fully to academia: a PhD in Neuroscience, this time studying the neural basis of defensive behaviour in fruit flies.
- 2011First year was an intensive bootcamp in core neuroscience concepts.
- 2013Organised and hosted a public science-communication event (~400 attendees) on the evolution and neuroscience of play.
- 2016Began a collaboration with a lab at Janelia Farm, moving to the USA for six months to use their collection of transgenic flies.
- 2018Finally published my paper as first author (126 citations as of 2026).
- 2019Defended my dissertation and became a doctor of neuroscience.
“This is awfully light for the amount of work you've presented.”
Post-doctoral researcher, Champalimaud Foundation
My last year in academia was mostly housekeeping: wrapping up unfinished experiments, onboarding new students on techniques and equipment, and teaching a course for colleagues on data analysis and statistics. In one sentence: knowledge transfer on my way out.
“I liked analysing the data far more than collecting it.”
Data analytics bootcamp at Ironhack
An intensive full-time data analytics bootcamp at Ironhack: Python, pandas, SQL, git, and machine learning. Just as the course wrapped up and we felt more prepared than ever to step onto the job-hunting treadmill, COVID hit.
Freelance Data Scientist
A freelance project for Empark, a major Spanish underground-parking operator. I segmented their customers with machine learning, mapped that against parking-location data to size the opportunity, and designed campaigns to nudge app users out of street parking and into Empark's higher-revenue garages.
Data Analyst at Miniclip
Product analyst on 8 Ball Pool, Miniclip's flagship title at ~10M daily players (also the only analyst on Soccer Stars ~500k DAU). I answered product, monetisation, and live-ops questions in SQL and R, and turned the results into the reports and dashboards the team planned around.
Lead Data Analyst at Miniclip
Became the analytics lead for 8 Ball Pool, the company's largest game, and the point person for all of its data work. I managed a team of four analysts, owning their hiring, performance, and career development. At the same time, I fully automated the studio's entire A/B testing pipeline.
Senior Product Analyst at Futureplay
Principal product analyst at a much smaller studio, covering the full analytics pipeline for Merge Gardens: event design, A/B testing, and dashboards (this time in Looker). I built multiple data-driven balancing tools, mostly for Match-3 levels but also for Stickers and energy events. Over time, that tooling work drove a shift into design, taking me from measuring systems to defining them.
