Following my studies in Biology with focus on Plant Biology, I did my PhD at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. At this point, I first observed diatoms under the microscope and learned that the photonic and optical properties of their ornamented glass shells – the frustules – are an understudied field of research. After post-doctoral studies at the University of Nantes, France, and at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory in Braga, Portugal, as Marie-Curie co-fund fellow, I am today affiliated with the University of Aveiro and CESAM as Junior Researcher (2020.04217.CEECIND). This region fascinates me as life seems to resolve around the saltmarsh system of the Ria de Aveiro. My research here still concerns the diatom frustules and their photonic properties: Can we use these structures technologically? Are the photonic properties reproducible? Which structural details are available in nature? And finally, why did such photonic materials evolved and how do they work in nature? Our research is supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through grant no. PTDCBTA-BTA20612021.

Keywords: diatoms, natural optics and photonics, photonic crystals, biotechnology, photosynthesis