Ana Paula Mucha has a research position at CIIMAR, University of Porto, Portugal, being member of the Board of Directors and the Principal Investigator of the EcoBioTec Group (Bioremediation and Ecosystems Functioning). She is also an Invited Assistant Professor at the Department of Biology of Faculty of Sciences of University of Porto. She focus her research on the development of biotechnologic tools for ecosystems recover, based on the ability of autochthonous microorganisms and plants to remove contaminants, through bioremediation and phytoremediation processes. She has relevant expertise in microbiology, microbial ecology and interaction of microorganisms with contaminants. She authored ca. 65 SCI papers including high profile journals such as Bioresource Technology or Environmental Science and Technology. She was the Scientific Coordinator of the CMIA (Environmental Monitoring and Interpretation Centre) of Vila do Conde (2012-2018) and regularly gives talks to the general public and school students in the frame of outreach programs and projects. Moreover, she has been involved ca. 20 national and international projects, being the coordinator of the ongoing project “BIOREM - Bioremediation of hydrocarbon pollutants by autochthonous microorganisms in aquatic environment” funded by FCT.

PhD Marisa Almeida (Female, born in 1974, orcid.org/0000-0002-6836-0331) is a senior researcher at CIIMAR since 2005 with over 100 international publications. With a PhD in Chemistry (obtained in 2003) her main research area is bio and phytoremediation, being actively engage in studies that aim to enhance the use of bio and phytoremediation as a tool of biotechnology for remediation of aquatic environments contaminated with different pollutants. Her expertise is on environmental chemistry applied to coastal and estuarine environments, phytoremediation of contaminants in natural and constructed wetlands and bioremediation of oil spills as well as ecological risk assessment, having participated in several national and international projects on these topics. She is also focusing on metals, hydrocarbons and emerging pollutants (e.g pharmaceuticals, nanoparticles and microplastics) in different environmental matrixes (water, sediment and biota), having extensive know how in analytical chemistry and application of several analytical techniques. She has supervised or co-supervised 5 Pos Doc researchers, 6 PhD students, 26 MSc students and internships of 3 international students as well as 23 Graduate students. Moreover she regularly gives talks to the general public and school students in the frame of the CIIMAR outreach programs and projects, regarding both ocean and water literacy. She participates also in COST actions, acts as project proposals evaluator, thesis evaluator and is an invited reviewer of several scientific journals.

Maria Paola Tomasino - Contracted researcher at CIIMAR in the framework of BIOREM project Bioremediation of hydrocarbon pollutants by autochthonous microorganisms in aquatic environment. Since her first post-doc, her research has focused on molecular microbial ecology in Bacteria and Protists. Her major interest is explore microplankton diversity, in different ecosystems, through metabarcoding approach. Her professional expertise includes fieldwork sampling know-how, from different matrices, as well technical molecular lab working and NGS data processing through different bioinformatics tools. MPT has dedicated interest in teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students. She promotes outreach and education activities. She was involved in different citizen science initiatives, promoting collaboration between scientists and the general public.

Catarina Magalhães is a PhD in Marine Sciences, researcher of CIIMAR, invited assistant professor at University of Porto and member of the coordination committee of Portuguese Polar Program. Her major research is on understanding how microbial derived nitrogen machineries interact and to identify the mechanisms regulating their operation. She focus her research on the impact of pollutants in marine N-biogeochemical pathways and in identifying the environmental constraints and controls on microbial Nitrogen pathways distribution including in extreme environments (Arctic/Antarctica). In the context of her research the methodologies she use are mainly biogeochemical measurements, microbiome sample processing and genomic and metagenomic work-flow analysis.

Maria de Fátima Carvalho is a microbiologist with a PhD in Biotechnology. She is currently principal investigator at Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR) of the University of Porto. Her research activities are focused on the development of biotechnological strategies for the removal of emerging environmental pollutants, with a special emphasis on fluorinated compounds, and on the bioprospection of marine Actinobacteria for the production of novel biotechnologically relevant bioactive compounds.

Sandra Ramos has a PhD in Aquatic Sciences and currently is a researcher at CIIMAR. Her main research area is marine ecology, with special emphasis on early life stages of fishes and impacts of human activities, including emergent pollutants as microplastics. Her research also includes marine ecosystem services and new approaches for environmental assessments, using participatory approaches to capitalize local stakeholder’s knowledge to promote the preservation of marine resources and ecosystems. SRamos has been actively involved in the implementation of EU environmental policies, namely the WFD and the MSFD, giving scientific support to managers and decision-makers. She also participated in several outreach activities with large experience in scientific knowledge-transfer, stakeholders engagement and networking with different social environments, namely academic and scientific community, fishermen, local authorities, policy-makers, environmental managers.

Maria Bôto graduated in Biology (UA) and holds a MSc in Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution (FCUP-UP). In 2020, she started her PhD in the Doctoral Program of Aquatic Sciences – Biology and Ecology (ICBAS-UP), during which she will focus on exploring the genetic potential of native microbial consortia to degrade petroleum compounds. During her scientific activities, she gained experience in culture dependent and independent techniques to investigate natural prokaryotic communities as well as in inorganic nutrient analysis.

Rafaela Mendes holds a BSc degree in Biology and MSc degree in environmental toxicology and contamination. Rafaela is currently working as a post-grad researcher at CIIMAR. She has experience and know-how on autochthonous bioremediation of hydrocarbons, with a special focus on the optimization of bacterial consortia for marine environments. Her main research interests rely on the recovery of polluted marine environments and ocean conservation.

Joana Fernandes holds a degree and master’s degree in Environmental Science and Technology (FCUP- UP) and she is finishing her PhD in Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS - UP). In the last years, her research has been focused on biodegradation of emerging pollutants by autochthonous microorganisms. She has been studying different biodegradation approaches to remove emerging pollutants from contaminated environments and the effects of different pollutants and remediation strategies on natural community dynamics.

Diogo A. M. Alexandrino holds a BSc in Environmental Health and a MSc in Environmental Toxicology. Since 2017 his research has focused on the biodegradation of recalcitrant fluorinated pesticides, under the scope of a PhD Fellowship granted by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. His research interests also include the study of microbiome diversity, structure and function and the design of technologies that harvest the benefits of environmental microorganisms with biotechnological potential.

Isana Barreto graduated in oceanography of University Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Brazil and University Aix-Marseille, France. Specialist in petroleum and environment (ANP). Master in Petroleum and Environment Geochemistry (LEPETRO-UFBA). Currently is student PhD in Petroleum and Environment Geochemistry (LEPETRO-UFBA). Research area is petroleum bioremediation by fungi and bacteria in mangroves and in the sea.

Bruno Mar, Inês Leal and José Morim are students of the last year of the Biology degree at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, doing the curricular internship in the Bioremediation And Ecosystems Functioning group.

Cláudia Cova is a finalist in the degree in Bioresourses at the Superior Institute of Engineering of Porto. She is currently elaborating her internship report in collaboration with CIIMAR with the group EcoBioTec in the BioRem project.

André Dias was born in Porto, Portugal 1980. He finished is lic. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from ISEP Porto Polytechnic School in 2004. He pursue further studies and obtained his Master in Electronics and Computers Engineering, from IST University of Lisbon in 2008. In 2015 graduated (Phd) in Electronics and Computers Engineering, from IST University of Lisbon.He currently is a professor at the School of Engineering (ISEP) of the Porto Polytechnic Institute (IPP) and senior researcher at the robotics and autonomous systems group of INESC TEC in Portugal, where he is project member in several international FP7, H2020 projects. He is the main author of several research publications in the domains of perception and mobile robotics applications.

Alexandre Amaral was born on October 11, 1994 in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Braga, where he still lives nowadays. In 2012, he joined ISEP's Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, branch of Electronics and Computers, which he concluded 3 years later. In the last year of the Bachelor’s he developed his final project at the CRAS laboratory, on ISEP. After that, in 2015, he started the Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, branch of Autonomous Systems at the Autonomous Systems Laboratory (ISEP). A year later, August 2016, he started working as a researcher at INESC TEC and he's being working with aerial robots.