I was born and raised in a small town in Costa Rica. During most of my childhood, my dad lived in the Caribbean, so I traveled once in a while to spend my vacations there. I then moved to San José, the capital, to do my undergraduate studies in Biology at the Universidad de Costa Rica. Before finishing my undergraduate studies, I came to Panama for the first time, to do a short-term internship with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, where I researched spider’s brains. The results of this research were presented in an Arachnology Congress where I met my favorite organisms: the daddy long legs. I then did my master’s degree at Universidad de Costa Rica, studying the plasticity in the web building behavior of spiderlings in constrained spaces. It was after that, that I looked for a laboratory that did research on animal behavior with daddy long legs and went to do my Ph.D. in behavioral ecology at Universidade de São Paulo. There, I studied paternal care and sexual selection in Mud-nest harvestmen, a group of tropical daddy long legs in which the male takes care of the offspring. During my Ph.D. I also developed a deep interest in science communication and in learning through experiences, and therefore I’m very happy to be teaching at SFS. I’m also very happy to be back in the Caribbean, just like when I was a kid.
I’m expecting to be able to transmit to SFS’ students and the community of Bocas, the importance of tropical forests using the Caribbean forest around us as an example. I also hope to continue doing research on animal behavior, as well as bringing, with the help of the students, our scientific research closer to the general public. When not in SFS, I’ll collaborate as an amateur videographer and communicator for an Eco-tourism company called The Canopy Family in Panama City. As a hobby, I run a project called Opilio Tracker, which aims to generate educational material about daddy long legs.