Science and environment journalist covering mainly Earth and physical sciences, climate change, and science/environmental policy. Passionate about the relation among science, politics and social development -- and for reporting on Brazilian matters to international audiences.
I was the vice-president of the Brazilian Network of Science Journalists and Communicators (RedeComCiência) for the 2021-2023 term.
Proud co-founding member, during the 2019-2021 term I was RedeComCiência's director for National Integration. During this time, the directive board put the association to work and we achieved very interesting partnerships with Brazilian and international institutions and individuals, besides engaging in several initiatives. One of them was the active participation in the Science Journalism Forum in 2020.
One of the main achievements of the Network mainly through its National Integration area during the 2019-2021 term was a pioneering mentorship program in science journalism for undergraduate students and young journalists, in which we gathered a stellar team of weathered science journalists as mentors and amazing 11 young journalists who produced high-quality science reporting as a result of the program.
The Brazilian Network of Science Journalists and Communicators is a non-profit association that gathers professionals interested in discussing and improving the quality of science journalism and science communication in Brazil. RedeComCiência promotes several initiatives in this regard and also participates in the worldwide dialogue around science journalism/communication, representing Brazil in the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ).
From March 2021 to October 2022, I was the lead science writer for the Astronomy and Society Group, working mainly with Space Scoop, the world's largest news service on astronomy for young readers. The project creates news articles about the latest astronomical findings from around the world in a language that's easy to understand and is aimed at children of 8 years old and above. The articles are based on scientific discoveries and press releases from partner institutions. The final stories are sent to a group of volunteer translators from all over the globe, making the content accessible in many different languages. Four Space Scoop articles are published each month.
I was also responsible for managing the Astronomy and Society social media accounts and for coordinating the Space Scoop translator network.
Recently (2019-2020), I was a senior science journalism fellow at the Giant Magellan Telescope Brazil Office (GMTBrO). There, I was responsible for writing scripts for short videos about astronomy and coordinated the restructuring of the project's audiovisual production. The GMTBrO is headed at the Astronomy Department of the University of São Paulo (IAG-USP) and is partnered by University of Vale do Paraíba (Univap) for the project's science communication.
As a content researcher at the Museum of Tomorrow (2015 - 2019), I worked closely with the curatorship of the museum. My work included content research to give support to temporary exhibitions; data and content research to maintain the main exhibition of the museum up to date; editing pieces authored by specialists to the museum's website - as well as writing other pieces myself; liaising scientists, policymakers and partners with the several areas of the museum by sharing common subjects and content. I also worked on editing and updating structural documents of the museum (such as the curatorial plan) and on creating documents of this same nature (such as the museum's overarching Science Communication plan). My work also encompassed the planning and execution of new products (such as Google Art Project galleries) and other editorial content.
My role also included the design and leadership of special projects, both in-house and in partnership with other institutions. These included:
- Development and coordination of the "Tomorrow in Research" program, which started in 2016 with liasing the Museum and researchers that looked for the institution to study it - and developed into a more robust program that includes grants to researchers and joint studies with international scholars in museums, science communication and public perception of climate change.
- Development and joint coordination (with the British Council Brazil) of the "Women in Science and Innovation" training scheme, which is a pillar of BC's "Women in Science" Program. This is an important part of the overarching Women in Science agenda I led with colleagues from the Education and Community Relations teams at the Museum of Tomorrow.
- Development and coordination of the "Food for Tomorrow" project (Training program to develop content and socio-educational approaches towards a food and agriculture touring exhibition), one of the six projects selected by the British Council Brazil as Newton Fund Institutional Skills awardees in 2017. In partnership with the Science Museum Group in Britain, the project allowed for staff exchange, training of local businesses and community leaders on avoiding food waste, and carried on knowledge exchange in exhibition development.
In 2018, I was nominated, along with the Content team, for the Jabuti Award 2018 for the co-authorship of the "Manual de Inovanças" catalog. Inovanças (Apr/2017 - Feb/2018) was the first in-house temporary exhibition we designed and received over 400 thousand visitors. Jabuti is the most prestigious literary prize in Brasil and is awarded yearly in 18 different categories.
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The Museum of Tomorrow is a public cultural institute of the city of Rio de Janeiro and has sustainability and conviviality as its main ethical pillars. It is managed by the Instituto de Desenvolvimento e Gestão (IDG). Since its opening in late 2015, the museum has been awarded multiple prizes, including the Leading Culture Destinations Awards in 2016, in the Museum Architecture of the Year category - along with Tate Modern Switch House in London, and The Broad in Los Angeles.
Besides my work as a science journalist, I have been involved in different science communication projects in the recent past.
From 2017 to 2020, I wrote to Cientistas Feministas, a blog focused on science topics written by women to call public attention to gender issues in science.
In Rio, I was one of the people who took Chopp comCiência (an outreach activity that brings science discussions to the more relaxed environment of bars in the same style of Pint of Science) to the city. Numinalabs leads the initiative at the Brazilian level and each city/regional chapter has its coordinating groups.
I also contributed to translating astronomy videos and writing about the subject to different places.
Between 2011 and 2016, I was a team member of GalileoMobile (an itinerant project endorsed by the International Astronomical Union as a Special Project of the International Year of Astronomy, run by volunteers), where I worked with colleagues from Astronomy and other areas taking science to children and youth in hard-to-reach regions in the world. The Brazilian Amazon, Bolivia, Uganda, Peru and India are some of the places GalileoMobile has been to.
From 2010 to 2012, I was a science communication intern at Universidade das Crianças, an outreach project from the Science Outreach Department of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). There, I was responsible for the creation of a Communications area and worked as a content producer, editor, translator and social media manager to the project. Some selected content created and edited at the time follows below.
