Experience
Founder & CEO @ Benthos.ai | 2024 - now
Tech Founder @ Carbon13 & BIA startup accelerators | 2023 - 2024 | Berlin
Geomodeller & Master of Science @ Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources | 2020 - 2022 | Hannover
Student Research Assistant in Marine Geosystems @ GEOMAR | 2019 - 2020 | Kiel
Education
I was born and raised in São Gonçalo, a commuter town 13 kilometers across a bridge from the iconic postcard views of Rio de Janeiro. Recently labeled by the BBC as the most dangerous city in Rio’s metropolitan area, it’s also the place where my journey began.
To support my single mom and younger brother, I started my first business at the age of six: scavenging illegal landfills for magnetic fridge gaskets, transforming them into quirky decorations and selling them to people in our neighborhood. For subsistence and recreation, we had Guanabara Bay, the body of water separating Rio de Janeiro from São Gonçalo. Even though - or rather because - it grew filthier by the day from industry waste and sewage, it became the catalyst for my scientific career.
A short bus ride from the bay, my first steps towards academia were taken in our 30m² “traditional” favela brick house under an asbestos roof that Rio's relentless sun frequently turned into an oven. I often oscillated between cold showers and tears, but clung to my school books knowing this might be my only way out. And indeed - my self-taught math skills eventually became my escape hatch when I earned a scholarship from Instituto JCA. Ranking first in their entrance exam secured me a spot at one of the best private high schools in the city.
This paved the way to something I’d dreamed of since I decided to tackle the pollution in our bay years ago: a place in Oceanography at Rio’s most prestigious university - making me the first member of my family to attend a higher education. However, enrolling in one of the least racially and socioeconomically diverse courses meant mastering a system not designed for those without financial support. The equation was simple: full-time studies + part-time jobs + physics classes on an empty stomach = five years of exhaustion. Yet somehow, I successfully learned to understand ocean dynamics before I even knew how to swim.
M.Sc. Geoscience @ University of Kiel, Germany
B.Sc. Oceanography @ Rio de Janeiro State University, Brazil
Data Science & ML @ ReDi School, Alura, codecentric, ECMWF
Climate Change: Learning for Action @ Terra.do