Dr P.E. Lopes Leão (Pedro)

Pedro completed his Ph.D. in Microbiology in 2018 at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). His thesis, titled "Diversity of Magnetotactic Organisms: New Frontiers for Magnetotaxis Evolution," explored groundbreaking aspects of magnetotaxis. Following his Ph.D., Pedro served as a visiting professor in the Department of Microbiology at UFRJ and held a position as an FSE fellow at the University of Groningen, within the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute (GBB).

In 2021, Pedro joined Dr. Brett Baker's research group at the University of Texas at Austin as a postdoctoral researcher. Over three years, he focused on the diversity of Asgard archaea and their role in the origin of eukaryotic life. Dr. Leão's research interests include the metabolic and phylogenetic diversity of prokaryotes, with a particular emphasis on understanding the impact of viral interactions on their evolution and ecological roles