My name is João Botelho and I completed my PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences - Microbiology at the University of Porto in December 2018, studying the molecular basis of antibiotic resistance mediated by different mobile elements in Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from clinical settings. I used experimental and computational approaches and worked in the laboratory of Luísa Peixe, funded by a competitive Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) grant. I also completed a short postdoctoral fellowship in the same laboratory, before moving to Germany in April 2019 to work as a Max Planck postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Hinrich Schulenburg. There, I used computational and experimental approaches to study antibiotic resistance in an evolutionary context, and was awarded the Kiel Life Science Award for Early Career Postdocs while in Germany. I was then awarded a Maria Zambrano Fellowship at the end of 2021 and worked at the Centre for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics CBGP (UPM-INIA) in Spain from July 2022 to November 2024, where my research focused on the evolutionary dynamics of bacterial and archaeal genomes, viruses and microbial populations. In 2023, I've secured a competitive contract in the 6th edition of the Individual Call of the Scientific Employment Stimulus (CEEC), funded by the FCT. Since December 2024, I've been working at the Centre for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry (CBQF) with my CEEC project, which focuses on exploring the role of duplicated core genes in multipartite bacterial genomes. I've produced high quality results and publications in the labs and countries where I've worked and have established myself as a major figure in the field of bacterial evolution, as evidenced by invitations to present my results and ideas at academic institutions. I have also developed strong collaborations with scientists around the world, resulting in international publications and competitive funding. I have recently co-supervised a PhD student, an undergraduate student and am currently a co-supervisor of a PhD student.