Professor at the Department of Biology of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto and member of the Board of Directors of the Centre for Marine and Environmental Research (CIMAR) as well as Head of the Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation group. One of her main research focus is on algae, on ecology of marine forests, and how they change as well as on seaweed aquaculture and how it can be used to provide biomass for different applications, as food, feed, cosmetics and biofuels while improving the environemnt and offering sollutions for biodiversity and climate change, including carbon sequestration. She has been working on coastal marine Nature Based Solutions, on Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture (IMTA) and Restorative Aquaculture as well as actively restoring marine forests (macroalgae), funded mostly by EU framework projects and other international funding programs with European and international researchers and stakeholders.

Other research interest has been on marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and services, how they are changing and why, and on sollutions for the biodiversity, climate and pollution crisis. She is promoting integrated Ocean Observations, being the co-chair of MBON (Marine Biodiversity Observation Network), part of GEO BON and in the Steering committee of AtlantOS and EOOS (European Ocean Observation System). She is actively working on the science-policy-society interfaces, e.g working with IPBES - the
Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, as the Portuguese Representative in this platform until 2018, while sellected as a Coordinating Lead Author of the Regional Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services from Europe and Central Asia then was ellected to the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel, a panel that supervises the scientific work of the Platform, and co-chair of its Knowledge and Data task force. In Europe she is also co- coordinator of Euromarine - European Network of Marine research, a consortium of more than 60 marine research institutions In Portugal she is Member of the “Concelho Nacional de Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação” an advisory body for the Minister of Science and Miniter of Economy of Portugal, she is in the Advisory Board of Act4Nature and is founder and Vice- President of the Associação Portuguesa de Algologia Aplicada (APAA).