I graduated from ISPA (2004) with a dissertation on interpersonal relationships. In 2010, I completed my PhD in Social Psychology (with honors) at ISCTE with an FCT grant. My work focused on why people feel attracted to others they never met. During the PhD, I did an internship with J Forgas (UNew South Wales) and established a research network with L Goldenberg (Harvard Business School). My PhD work resulted in 30 outputs.

In 2011, I received an FCT grant for my Post-Doc, supervised by D Lopes (ISCTE), J M Oliveira (UFSanta Catarina), R Sanitioso (UParis Descartes) and M Kumashiro (Goldsmiths). My research focused on how individual motives and relationship motives shaped relationship outcomes. During this period, I published 26 outputs, and expanded my research network to include, among others, A Huic, (UZagreb), C V Smith (UMississippi), R de Visser (USussex), and T Conley (UMichigan).

I was ranked first in Psychology at the 2020 Stimulus of Scientific Employment, Individual Support (CEECIND), funded by FCT (Ref. 2020.00523.CEECIND), and I have a fixed-term contract as Researcher and Invited Assistant Professor at ISCTE.

I am the principal researcher in a project funded by "la Caixa" Foundation, was the principal researcher at ISCTE in a project funded by the EU, and I am team member of a research project co-funded by EU/FCT. In total, I was an Invited Scientist Research Fellow, a PhD fellow, a Post-Doc fellow, a Researcher in 6 projects, a Post-Doc research in 1 project, and a Principal Researcher in 8 projects.

In total, I published 46 international papers in top-tier journals, including Arch Sex Behav and J Sex Med, and 6 book chapters. My articles were well received by the academic community (789 citations in GoogleScholar, h10-index = 16; ResearchGate = 29.55), shared in social media, and gained media coverage in national (e.g., Expresso) and international outlets (e.g., New York Magazine). I was also invited to share my findings in non-academic contexts (JWT Creative Agency).

Most of my papers were recognized with scientific awards (e.g., ISCTE). In total, I received 14 awards, including an Honorable Mention for the best Psychology papers of 2020 in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, and an award from Center for Open Science in 2018 for transparency and good practices in research. I presented my work in more than 80 national and international scientific meetings, and I have been a reviewer in several journals (e.g., J Sex Res).

During my academic career, I have always been committed to the training of young researchers. I supervise 4 PhD thesis and 25 Master's dissertations.

I currently teach interpersonal relationships courses, and I have been invited to teach research methods courses and seminars on how to conduct research, to undergraduates and in the Master and PhD programs. I have also been engaged in scientific coordination and leadership activities: I coordinate a research project, coordinated projects funded by CIS, and co-coordinated a research group at CIS. I also co-organized and been in scientific committees of scientific meetings.

I have been involved with the Editorial process since 2016: I am Associate Editor of top-tier journals (e.g., Front Psychol) and I was recently appointed Editor of Psicologia journal. Lastly, I have been involved with the dissemination of psychology, serving as Vice-President of the Portuguese Association of Psychology.