Born in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal, in 1976, Maria received her degree in Biology from the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Sciences, and went on to get her PhD within the same institution, studying the wader birds of the Tagus estuary (focused mainly on those species that chase the tides).
She then embarked on other adventures, to the remote islands of Selvagens and Desertas. There, she studied the migration of seabird species such as Cory’s shearwaters and Bulwer’s petrels. She too migrated, for a number of years, to another Atlantic Island – Great Britain – to work with BirdLife International, the world’s largest nature conservation partnership.
More recently, she returned to the university where she trained, currently teaching Ecology at the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Sciences.
Maria has lived almost her entire life in Oeiras, close to Lisbon. Very early in her childhood she showed a particular interest in the insects and plants taking over the suburban gardens and vacant plots in her local neighborhood. These early explorations, together with the many books of her childhood, laid the foundations for her ongoing passion for science, and in particular biology.
