Raquel grew up by the ocean in Rio de Janeiro, where she had the opportunity to connect with this amazing environment. Since her young ages, she has held a huge love and appreciation for the ocean's top predators, sharks, and it has always been her dream to become a shark biologist and help to protect these fascinating creatures.

Therefore, she focused her entire undergraduate path into marine ecology, shark studies, and conservation. She received her Bachelor in Biological Sciences in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is currently a MS/PhD student in Marine Sciences in the Reef Ecology Lab, Integrated Ocean Processes Lab and Ecological Oceanography Lab.

Currently, her research focuses on movement patterns and vertical migration of whale sharks in the Red Sea, correlating it to the oceanographic features that can be found in this fantastic place. Her another research topic is an ecophysiology approach of sharks and rays, evaluating and characterizing nutrition, reproduction status, immunology and stress in those animals.

Ecophysiology Elasmobranch research Movement ecology Conservation biology Shark physiology Reroduction physiolpogy Nutritional physiology Stress physiology Immunology Elasmobranch microbiome