The Advisory Council of A ROCHA Portugal was formed with the aim of responding to the need for developing good practice in the Conservation and Science work done by the national and international scientific community. In recent years, we have developed more conservation programs, which are scientifically robust, and we also created the Department of Conservation and Science, with the main purpose of promoting local conservation projects through innovative scientific research, management and restoration of ecosystems and environmental education. These are the members of the Advisory Council:

Marcos Mateus
Marcos has a Master’s degree in Marine Biology and a PhD in Environmental Engineering. He is a Marine Systems modelling expert and Assistant Professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal. Marcos has been working on research projects related to Coastal Management Modeling and Marine Ecosystems. He also coordinates and manages national and international research and development projects.

Renata Medeiros
Renata is a seabird researcher. She has a degree in Biology and a Masters degree in Ecology from the University of Coimbra. She completed her PhD on the Impact of Climate Change on Storm petrels, a small seabird from the Procellariiformes order, at Cardiff University where she is currently teaching Statistics. Her current research interests are related to the use of molecular techniques to investigate the diet of seabirds.

Ruben Heleno
Ruben holds a PhD in Ecology from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. He currently works as researcher at the Center for Functional Ecology, University of Coimbra. The main area of his research is the use of ecological networks to study the causes and consequences of global threats to biodiversity with an emphasis on changes caused in the functions of island ecosystems. Most of this work has been done on the Galapagos Islands and the Azores and, more recently, in continental Portugal and the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique.

Will Simonson
Will has a Master’s degree in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London. He is currently working as Associate Researcher at the Forest Ecology and Conservation Group, University of Cambridge. He has a degree in Botany from the University of Cambridge and his career in nature conservation includes twelve years working with A ROCHA Portugal, four years working at the government agency English Nature and three years as editor. Having recently completed his PhD, he is currently carrying out research on productivity and biodiversity in the Mediterranean forest, using airborne remote sensing.