I am passionate about social justice, sustainability, and civic participation. I have been an activist for eight years now, with a recent focus on gender equality.
From the challenges of AI to epistemic decolonisation, there is hardly a topic I don't find interesting.
I worked at Transparency International Portugal, an anticorruption non-governmental organisation. I will soon start a job in scientific software development for a climate change programme at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna, Austria.
I have a background in Data Science and Cell and Molecular Biology.

Experience

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Research Software Programmer | 2024 —

Working as part of the Scenario Services and Scientific Software team. Part of the Integrated Assessment and Climate Change Research Group of the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program.

Supervisor(s): Daniel Huppmann, PhD, Volkey Krey, PhD

Transparency International Portugal

Project Assistant | 2023 — 2024

Day-to-day assistance on project implementation and conformity to expected results and project workplans
Assistance on financial management
Membership management, including through CRM systems
Administrative tasks

Highlights:
"Millions against the clock": data visualisation dashboard and media campaign highlighting bad practices on direct award public contracting for World Youth Day 2023 Lisbon (+33M € in public spending)
Global Anti-Corruption Consortium": project focused on showcasing Portugal's role in enabling transnational corruption, by building a database of illicitly obtained assets, services, entities, and people involved in the chain of events, with the ultimate goal of supporting asset recovery

Supervisor(s): Karina Carvalho

Media Ecosystems Analysis Group

Consultant | 2022

Highlights:
Running dataset comparisons to detect key differences related to technical problems with database downloads for different time periods
Documenting the entire analysis process and producing data visualisations to communicate results to supervisor
Integrating different data sources from the Media Cloud project to identify problems with data integrity and availability

Supervisor(s): Fernando Bermejo, PhD

Social Physics and Complexity

Research Fellowship | 2019

Highlights:
Data integration by designing a personalised processing pipeline
Data extraction from online sources, via web scraping (using asynchronous HTTP requests) and API calls
Data transformation, involving cleaning, pre-processing, and enrichment, for future analysis
Data loading to an in-house database built for the purpose, supporting a large range of queries for analytics
Text data processing and analysis, using state-of-the-art NLP tools
Time series statistical analysis

Supervisor(s): Joana Gonçalves-Sá, PhD

Network Modelling Lab

BSc Final Project | 2020 — 2022

Building a network of the core regulatory map of stemness markers in the epithelial to mesenchymal transition observed in cancer cells.

Supervisor(s): Claudine Chaouiya, PhD, Gianluca Selvaggio, PhD

Behaviour and Metabolism Lab

BSc Internship | 2018

Care for Drosophila stock, selective breeding of specimens following fly pushing principles, running behavioural experiments using in-house developed setups.

Supervisor(s): Zita Carvalho-Santos, PhD

Education

Master's in Data Science

Ciências ULisboa | 2019 — 2022

Data cleaning, enrichment, transformation, visualization
Machine learning and artificial intelligence
Databases: management systems (DBMS), SQL and NoSQL
Business intelligence: extraction-transformation-loading (ETL) pipelines, data warehousing/OLAP database paradigm, data visualization (dashboards)
Statistical analysis and data sampling

Grade: 19/20 (A in ECTS grading system)

Bachelor's in Cell and Molecular Biology

FCT NOVA | 2016 — 2019

Grade: 17/20 (A in ECTS grading system)

Skills

Programming

Python

pandas
NumPy
Matplotlib
seaborn
Selenium
BeautifulSoup4
Scikit-learn

R

Bioconductor
deSolve
ggplot2
zoo
xts

Databases

PostgreSQL
MongoDB

HTML
CSS

IT

Microsoft Office
Notion
Power BI

Language

Portuguese (native)
English (working language)
Spanish (advanced)
French (elementary)

Other

Public speaking
Event management
Writing
Workshop facilitation
Non-formal education
Science communication
Advocacy

Activism

HeForShe Lisboa

President of the Board | 2022 — present

Events Department | 2021 — 2022

Youth organisation for the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of communities. Daily management of team of around 40 people, organised into 7 departments, project management, event planning, partnership agreements, fundraising, etc.

Highlights:
Arts Week : yearly celebration of International Women's Day with a focus on cultural and artistic events that highlight and center the experiences of women and under-represented groups, in partnership and with the support of local government and grassroots organisations.
ACADEMIA : academy focused on Human Rights, with a component of intersectionality and gender equality, organised in partnership with NOVA School of Law's Knowledge Centre for Business, Human Rights and the Environment, and the law firm Linklaters; participants are offered the opportunity to apply to short-term shadowing programmes with partner organisations, that have included consulting firms, NGOs, national and international banks, etc.
WeForEducation : project aimed at schools, offering training and non-formal education to young students on topics related to gender equality, sex education, and social justice, in partnership with the Portuguese Foundation "Community Against AIDS"'s Centre for Youth Counselling and Orientation (FPCCS/CAOJ).

Associação Anémona

Secretariat | 2022 — present

Health organisation for the promotion of inclusive healthcare in the Portuguese National Health Service.

Highlights:
Participation in a pilot event facilitated by IGLYO (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer & Intersex Youth and Student Organisation) to review and discuss Portugal's Universal Periodic Review in matters of LGBTQIA+ rights.

Associação Nacional de Estudantes de Biologia

President of the Board | 2020 — 2021

Vice-President of the Board | 2019 — 2020

Member | 2018 — 2019

National biology student federation working with university student groups to promote fair and equal access to higher education in biology, learning and extracurricular opportunities for students, and organising annual gatherings.

Núcleo de Biologia Celular e Molecular

President of the Board | 2018 — 2019

Vice-President of the Board | 2017 — 2018

Member | 2016 — 2017

Cell and molecular biology student society from FCT NOVA, developing on-campus activities, such as talks, workshops, job fairs.

NOVA School of Science and Technology

Pedagogical Council | 2019

Pedagogical Committee | 2016 — 2019

Student representative for the Cell and Molecular Biology class of 2016, responsible for cooperating with professors to establish test and exam schedules, reporting any students' concerns of faculty misdemeanour, and later, organise the school calendar and review proposals for new study cycles.

Talks and outreach

Interviews

GERAÇÃO Z, national broadcast radio and podcast show on activism and youth civic participation in Portugal
Jornal i, national coverage newspaper, contributions to articles:

"The vision of young people on Artificial Intelligence" (December 14, 2023)
"Very light plastic bags. A matter of habit?" (October 17, 2023)
"0% VAT. Are the Portuguese satisfied?" (April 23, 2023)
"The Little Mermaid. A discussion on representation" (September 19, 2022)

Speaker/lecturer

IPLeiria, talk on "Domestic violence with a gender perspective"
Erasmus+ INETE project, talk on "What activism means for you"
VII Estados Gerais AAUL (University of Lisbon Student Union), panel on "The challenge of wellness and inclusion"
AIESEC YouthSpeak Forum, talk on "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at work: more than just buzzwords"
AEFML Pillow Talk, debate on reproductive rights in Portugal
NOVA School of Law, panel on "Gender, Ethnicity and Diversity Talks: the role of civil society in promoting equality"
European Commission's CERV project SolRem, talk on "Contemporary women's solidarity networks and resistance against authoritarianism"
NOVA University Lisbon Erasmus+ project ULEAD4ALL, interviewed contribution for challenges and best practices for DEI in higher education leadership

Invited participant

Team Community's Global Gathering 2023 on digital rights
European Commission's "Rule of Law in Portugal: challenges and opportunities for the justice system and fighting corruption"
Embassy of Germany in Portugal's fireside chat with Dr. Emilia Roig on feminist foreign policy

Organiser/facilitator

Lisbon Municipality's workshop on ethics, integrity and corruption prevention

Advocacy

Local Councillor for the Azambuja Municipality's Equality Council
Local Councillor for the Lisbon Municipality's Equality Council

Personal development

Transparency International School on Integrity 2023 (2023, Lithuania)
Erasmus+ Youth Exchange: Women's Rights Throughout History (2023, Croatia)
Erasmus+ Youth Exchange: Fostering Gender Equality to Combat Stereotypes (2022, Romania)

David Almeida