Daniela de Lima Gabriel
Junior Researcher
Daniela Gabriel attended the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) where she was awarded a degree in Plant Biology in 1999. As a student, she was initiated in Algal Taxonomy by Dr Yoneshigue-Valentin, and later worked on reproductive isolation of Bromeliaceae with Dr Wendt while teaching lab classes of flower identification. In 2000, after finishing her Undergraduate thesis on Genetic transformation of rice supervised by Dr Pádua, she began teaching Chemistry for High School students.
She moved to the Azores (Portugal), in 2002, to conduct research in classical and molecular taxonomy of Red Algae, and, since 2005, she has also been collaborating with the Seaweed Lab at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (USA). In 2008 she defended her PhD thesis on the phylogeny of the Nemastomatales, under the supervision of Dr Neto and Dr Fredericq. After her graduation, she worked for the Azorean Government developing Outreach and Education projects throughout the archipelago, assisting in the creation of Science Museums, applying for funding, developing expositions and adapting learning materials.
Under the supervision of Dr Harris (CIBIO-Porto) and Dr Norris (Smithsonian Institution), she started a posdoctoral research project in 2011, which is focused on the phylogeny of the red algae belonging to the Peyssonneliales. She is also interested in studying morphological and developmental features that help distinguishing the members of species-complexes, especially among algal taxa involving alternation of generation between gelatinous and crustose phases. Her other areas of interest are biodiversity and ecological monitoring.
Dr Gabriel continues with active collaboration with many of her past colleagues and supervisors, resulting in an international network that provides a multitude of samples, data and expertise in different fields. Dr Gabriel also continues to cooperate with the regional Science Museums and local City Councils in different outreach and education activities.