Curriculum Vitae
Education
- B.S. in Biology, University of Coimbra (Final grade: 16/20), 2012 (July 17th)
- M.S. in Ecology, University of Coimbra (Final grade: 19/20), 2014 (July 11th)
- Thesis title: Pollinator preferences in a hybrid zone
- Ph.D. in Evolutionary Genomics and Zoology, University of Oslo, 2020 (June 5th)
- Thesis title: On the origins of cryptic species: Insights from the Stygocapitella species complex
Work experience
- Duty-work (2015-2019 - 1695 hours in total)
- University of Oslo
- Duties: Grant writing, data analysis, collection digitalization
- Visiting Scholar (2019-2020)
- UC Berkeley
- Project: The genomic architecture of repeated evolution in Hawai’ian spiders
- Supervisor: Rosemary Gillespie
- Duties: Laboratory work and population genomics
Funding
- 2019 - UiO Internationalization fund ~5,000 euros
- 2019 - Peder Sather Grant program (Under Torsten Struck and Rosemary Gillespie;) ~25,000 euros
- 2019 - NORBIS international travel grant ~3,000 euros
- 2018 - American Genetics Association Travel Award for the Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance ~2,000 euros
- 2018 - ESEB Godfrey Hewitt Mobility Award 1,230 euros
- 2018 - Internationalization Support - UiO:Life Science to visit Julian Catchen at Illinois ~4,500 euros
- 2018 - Erasmus + Training grant (opplæringsmobilitet) ~1,000 euros
- 2018 - MatNat-Stipend (Travel funding) ~1,000 euros
- 2018 - ForBio outgoing travel grants to the Population and Speciation Genomics course ~500 euros
- 2017 - Erasmus+ Training mobility grant (opplæringsmobilitet) 675 euros
- 2017 - Programming for Evolutionary Biology travel stipend ~500 euros
- 2017 - ForBio outgoing travel grants to visit Günter Purschke at the University of Osnabrück ~500 euros
- 2017 - Den Grevelige Hjelmstjerne-Rosencroneske Stiftelse ved Universitet i Oslo ~1,000 euros
- 2016 - The Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Endowed Scholarship supports graduate or undergraduate students who conduct research or attend a class at Friday Harbor Laboratories ~500 euros
Awards
- 2019 - Best poster award at EMPSEB (European Meeting of PhD Students in Evolutionary Biology) ~500 euros
- 2018 - PhD Photo Contest: #phdlifeMN iPad 9,7-inch, 32 GB, Wi-Fi
- 2017 - Best poster award at NORBIS’ conference ~50 euros
- 2016 - Best poster and speed presentation award at the ForBio meeting ~500 euros
- 2014 - Top 3% student - Faculty for Science and Engineering, University of Coimbra ~2,500 euros
- 2014 - 4th best individual speak at the Portuguese National Debating Competition
Funding as third party
- California Conservation Genomics Project (PI: Rosemary Gillespie). Role: Bioinformatician (2020) 50,000 USD
Publications
Please see the publications tab
Skills (including used tools)
- Population genomics
- Whole genome-resequencing (Alignment and Variant calling using bwa, gatk, samtools, picard Tools, plink)
- RADseq (Stacks, Ipyrad)
- Divergence and summary statistics (PCA, Structure, Admixture, MSMC, Vcftools, Fst - scans of divergence, R:PopGenome R:adegenet)
- Demographic analysis (FasSimCoal)
- Hybridization and introgression (Treemix)
- Phylogenetics
- SNP-based (SNAPP)
- Matrix based (BaCoCa, IQtree, raxML, BEAST)
- Sub-skill 2.3
- Genome assembly and comparative genomics
- Assembly (Spades, Canu, wtdbg2, mitobim)
- Matrix based (BaCoCa, IQtree, raxML, BEAST)
- Annotation (BREAKER, MAKER)
- Comparative analyses (BLAST, CAFE, InterproScan, KinFin)
- Ecological data analysis
- GLM (GLMM in lme4)
- SEM (lavaan)
- Wet-laboratory skills
- DNA extraction (Phenol, Kit-based)
- PCR and sanger sequencing
- Library preparation (RADseq, fragment analyser, whole genome amplification)
- Experience in Fielwork
- Pollination Biology
- Marine Invertebrate Biology
Invited Talks (c - conference, d - department seminar)
- d J. Cerca, T.H. Struck Cryptic species in Evolutionary Biology and Systematics - California Academy of Sciences, SF-USA
- d J. Cerca, T.H. Struck Cryptic as evolutionary phenomena - Uppsala, Sweden
- c J. Cerca, C. Meyer, G. Purschke, T.H. Struck Perhaps not so cosmopolitan. Biogeographical evidence, incidence of cryptic species, population connectivity and evidence of morphological stasis in the interstitial annelid Stygocapitella subterranea – BioSyst.EU Meeting - Gothenburg, Sweden
Talks (c - conference, d - department seminar)
- c J. Cerca, T.H. Struck Sequencing ghosts: how genomics is helping us understand biological diversity and solve the cryptic species problem – EMPSEB (European Meeting PhD Student in Evolutionary Biology) c
- c J. Cerca, M. Ravinet, J. Catchen, A. Rivera-Colón, T.H. Struck – New Tools for Old Problems: Population Genomics and Biogeographical Inference of the Stygocapitella subterranea Cryptic Species Complex (Annelida: Parergodrillidae) – GIGA iii (Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance)
- c J. Cerca, T.H. Struck – Four ways to be cryptic – ForBio annual meeting
- c J. Cerca, T.H. Struck – Cryptic species at the crossroads of systematics, ecology, evolutionary biology and paleobiology – 19th Young Systematics Forum
- c J. Cerca de Oliveira, C. Meyer, G. Purschke, T. H. Struck - The enigmatic case of morphological stasis in the marine annelid Stygocapitella subterranea: biogeographical and morphological evidence – VI ForBio Annual Meeting
- c S. Leal, J. Vieira, J. Cerca de Oliveira, J. Gričar, I. Chaves, C. Miguel - A proteomic approach to the study of the phenology of cambial activity in Larix decídua – Eurodendro (International Scientific Conference on Dendrochronology Climate and Human History in the Mediterranean Basin)
- c J. Cerca de Oliveira, A. Agudo, I. Alvaréz, S. Castro, A. Afonso, R. Torices - Don’t count your chickens before they hatch: Pollinator attraction, female reproductive success and fitness consequences of rayed and rayless phenotypes – IV Congreso Ibérico de Ecología
Teaching and supervision
- Teaching experience as teacher
- ForBio Workshop: Proposal writing (2019) - FORBIO course with Hugo de Boer and Folmer Bokma
- Teaching experience as TA
- Rad-Seq data analysis (2019) - Physalia course with Julian Catchen
- Introduction to Bioinformatics for Biosystematics (2019) - FORBIO course with Jonathan Nylander, Hans-Henrik Fuxelius and Mike Martin
- Evolution and systematics of the Animal kingdom (2018, master-level class, University of Oslo)
- High Throughput Sequencing technologies and bioinformatics analysis (2017, PhD and master-level class, University of Oslo)
- Phylogenomics (2017) FORBIO course with Torsten H. Struck and Patrik Kukk
- Molecular Evolution (2016-18) with Lutz Bachmann
- Students supervised
- Shi Lin (BSc student, advisor, UC-Berkeley, 2019)
- Kenzie Weiss-Mercord (BSc student, advisor, UC-Berkeley, 2019)
- Marius Maurstad (BSc student, advisor, University of Oslo, 2019-2020)
- Stian Aleksander Helsem (Msc student, co-advisor, University of Oslo, 2019-2021)
- Astrid Bang (Msc student, co-advisor, University of Oslo, 2018-2020)
Relevant courses taken
- 2019 - Nature MasterClass: Writing for researchers
- 2018 - Winter School in Genome Assembly and Annotation
- 2018 - Workshop on Population and Speciation Genomics, Cesky Krumlov
- 2017 - Introduction to SnakeMake
- 2017 - Programming for Evolutionary Biology
- 2016 - An introduction to bioinformatic tools for metagenetic and population genomic data analysis
- 2016 - Software Carpentry Workshop
Research stays abroad (>3months)
- 2019 - Blaxterlab: learning genome assembly and bioinformatics (University of Edinburgh, Mark Blaxter)
- 2018 - Catchenlab: learning radseq, bioinformatics and population genomics (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Julian Catchen)
Peer review activity (by year and journal)
- 2020 - Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (1 manuscript)
- 2019 - Systematics & Biodiversity (1 manuscript), Heredity (1 manuscript),
- 2018 - Zoologica Scripta (1 manuscript)
- 2017 - Evolution (1 manuscript as student co-reviewer)
Science communication
- 2020 - Research featured in EurekAlert!
- 2019 - Research featured in a major Portuguese outlet, Público
- 2019 - Research featured in an opinion piece in Público
- 2018 - Highschool visit, Escola da Sé, Guarda Portugal (talked to ~80 students)
- 2018 - Skype a Scientist - Classrooms of 6 years olds in Florida
- 2018 - Skype a Scientist - Classrooms of 17 year olds in Chicago
- 2017 - Skype a Scientist - Classrooms of 12 year olds in Croatia
- 2016 - Research featured in a Norwegian Science outlet, Forskning.no
- 2017 - 20 articles in De Rerum Natura
- 2015 - 1 article for the Portuguese Association for Education in Evolutionary Biology
Fieldwork (alone in the field is signed with^)
- 2018 - Vladivolstok, Primorsky Krai in Far-East Russia (collection of interstitial invertebrates - Stygocapitella)
- 2018^ - Sylt, Germany (collection of interstitial invertebrates - Gnathostomulida)
- 2017^ - Tromsø & Lofoten, Northern Norway (collection of interstitial invertebrates - Stygocapitella)
- 2016^ - Massachusets, Maine and Washington, USA Atlantic and Pacific (collection of interstitial invertebrates - Stygocapitella)
- 2016^ - Cardiff, Plymouth, London, UK (collection of interstitial invertebrates - Stygocapitella)
- 2016 - Roscoff, France (collection of interstitial invertebrates - Stygocapitella)
- 2016 - Sylt, Germany (collection of interstitial invertebrates - Stygocapitella)
- 2013 - Granada, Spain (observing pollinators and capturing specimens for reference collection)
- 2012 - Sierra Nevada, Spain (observing pollinators and capturing specimens for reference collection)
Service and leadership
- 2020 - Student proposal reviewer for the Society of Systematic Biologists (3 proposals reviewed)
- 2018-2019 - Society of Study of Evolution, Graduate Student Advisory Council member
- 2019 - Student proposal reviewer for “Research Excellence Grants - R.C. Lewontin Early Award” Society for the Study of Evolution (33 proposals reviewed)
- 2018 - Grant reviewer for the “Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowships training program and potential hosts”, ForBio (5 proposals reviewed)
- 2018 - Student proposal reviewer for “Research Excellence Grants - R.C. Lewontin Early Award” Society for the Study of Evolution (33 proposals reviewed)