Bio
I was born in the United States and spent most of my childhood in New Mexico, the “Land of Enchantment.” That environment sparked my interest in biology, leading me to pursue a PhD at the University of New Mexico. While my dissertation focused on yeast molecular biology, support from the university’s High-Performance Computing Center shifted my path toward computational biology. I became passionate about using computers to study genomes, an interest I carried into postdoctoral positions at the National Center for Genome Resources and Ohio State University before joining the University of Florida faculty in 2001. My research focuses on using computational approaches to understand the evolution of genes, genomes, and organisms. Much of my recent work has focused on birds, but I am interested in applying these approaches to understanding biodiversity across all levels, from molecules to ecosystems.

Bio
Isabel L. Maurício is a biologist and Assistant Professor of Medical Parasitology, at the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, NOVA University Lisbon since 2010, after studying and working at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), University of London, UK. She is a parasitologist specializing in Leishmaniasis, Medical Helminthology, Phylogenetics and Molecular Epidemiology, with some collaborative work on rotavirus. Additionally, she has been active in gender equality and sustainability, and she is a member of IHMT’s Ethics Committee. She currently coordinates the MSc in Medical Parasitology at IHMT. Her research has focused on molecular taxonomy and on the development of molecular typing and diagnostic methods, including isothermal amplification methods, and, more recently, she has worked on development of accessible methods for environmental DNA capture and detection, particularly of trematodes and their intermediate hosts in water, in the context of wider studies to determine the risk of disease transmission with a One Health perspective.

Bio
Vittorio Capozzi is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Sciences of Food Production (ISPA), Italian National Research Council (CNR). He got his PhD in Biotechnology of Food Products, with a thesis on the molecular biology of lactic acid bacteria . During his PhD, he spent 9 months in Dijon (France), working at the Institut Jules Guyot, the Université de Bourgogne and the National School of Biology Applied to Nutrition and Food. He has postdoctoral experience at the following institutions: the Agricultural Research Council (CRA) of Italy, the University of Foggia, the Science Institute of Vine and Wine of Bordeaux University (visiting), the Free University of Bozen, and the Edmund Mach Foundation.