About me
I received the Master degree in Physics in 2019 from the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Manchester, under the tutoring of Professor Wendy Flavell. My research project was partnered with the Christies Hospital Which was supervised by Marcel van Herk. After, I worked for the department of Transport as a data scientist. In October 2020 I transitioned into neuroscience when I was awarded Marie Skłodowska-Curie scholarship. I joined Vision in Action lab at Champalimaud Center for the Unknown, Portugal, where I am understanding avoidance strategies in larval zebrafish under the supervision of Dr. Michael Orger. This research project is affiliated with the Zenith European Training Network, funded by Horizon 2020.
My main research interests are in complex systems and control theory. Particularly, how we can approximate them to be in linear regimes. A way to gain interpretation is by linearly approximating the dynamics. Linear systems are based on superpositions of different modes; therefore, it is very easy to control and understand that give rise to complex dynamics. Methods such as time-embedding can capture rich dynamics, while eigen-analysis provides a way to gain insights into the system through analysis of the principal components. In my current PhD work, I have applied dynamical systems approaches to understand the movements of larval zebrafish and to infer control models, which can be compared with neural data. I am particularly interested in how persistent internal states give rise to variability in responses, and how we can use modeling approaches to infer the underlying latent variables. To this end, I have begun recording whole-brain calcium imaging data, using light-sheet microscopy, in a paradigm where head-fixed larval zebrafish transition between different locomotor states.