Bruno Vaz da Silva

In 2012 I concluded my Degree in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, and with Evolutionary and Molecular Biology as my main fields of interest I decided to apply for the Masters in Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution at CIBIO, in which I am enrolled since 2013. I am currently developing my MSc thesis focused on the evolutionary history of the birds of the Angolan highlands, under the supervision of Dr. Martim Melo and Dr. Ricardo Lopes.

The major aim of this work will be to provide a clear picture of the relationships between the Angolan centre of montane bird endemism and other African mountain forest cores by analysing and combining, for the first time, empirical information from gene evolution and circumstantial information from past habitat evolution, ultimately performing a comparative analysis of the phylogeographic patterns with the different species that were exposed to the same evolutionary forces.

From a conservation perspective, this will provide robust past and present data to identify environmental settings more likely to help maintain the evolutionary process into the future.