My interest in Coleoptera came when, as an undergrad, I was an intern at the Entomology Sector of the Zoological Collection of the Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso (CEMT), sorting, mounting, and subsequently cataloguing specimens. This activity was something that caught my attention, and at this point I started to appreciate insects, especially beetles.

I started looking at weevils with more sympathy at the beginning of my master's degree, under the supervision of Dr. Marinêz Isaac Marques and Dr. Germano Rosado-Neto. The focus of my research project was the taxonomic revision of the South American species of the genus Rhineilipus (Molytinae).

Currently, in my doctorate, I work with systematics of the Subtribe Leptoschoinina (Curculionidae-Baridinae), sensu Alonso-Zarazaga & Lyal, 1999, under the supervision of Dr. Fernando W. T. Leivas and Dr. Adriana Marvaldi. We want to understand and be able to define: who are the Leptoschoinina? To answer this question, we are producing a list of terminologies for Leptoschoinina, aiming to better establish homologies, and elaborating a matrix of adult morphological characters as a source of information for cladistic analysis. One of the creators of my doctoral project was Dr. Sérgio Vanin, who left us at the end of last year. We will always miss him.

We are fortunate to have the collaboration of several curators who have already sent me specimens for developing this work.

In the future, I want to continue the study of Neotropical weevils to expand the knowledge of this diverse group.