After graduating in Aquatic Sciences (ICBAS-UP, 1996) and completing a Master's in Ethology (ISPA, 1999), I joined the Neurobehavior Group at IBMC-UP as a Ph.D. student (2000), aiming to strengthen the ethological approach to the study of drug addiction. My doctoral work (Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences, ICBAS-UP) focused on exploring how environmental enrichment and flexibility can shape the brain and promote resilience to addiction. Since then, my research has been devoted to understanding the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying vulnerability and resilience to drug use. During my postdoctoral position at IBMC, I established and coordinated a Neurobehavioral Core Facility, supporting multiple projects with behavioral assessments in rodent models. From 2012 to 2015, as a postdoc at ICBAS-UP, I secured my first competitive research grant as Principal Investigator and deepened my interest in translational ethology. I collaborated with ÂNIMAS, a non-profit organization that trains assistance dogs, participating in research projects that assessed the impact of dogs on the behavior of children with intellectual disabilities, and supervised students in this area. In 2015, I was awarded a highly competitive FCT Investigator contract as Assistant Researcher (2015–2020), joining the Addiction Biology group at i3S (AB-i3S). I introduced an ethological perspective to the group, enabling the integration of behavioral, neural, and psychological data to provide a more comprehensive understanding of addiction processes. Over this period, I consolidated my scientific independence, established my research line, and led a behavior-focused team investigating environmental determinants of resilience to drug use. Over the past five years, my work has advanced the understanding of how social stress during development shapes vulnerability to addiction. I was senior/last author in 8 out of 15 peer-reviewed papers published in top-tier journals such as Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Translational Psychiatry, and Scientific Reports. My research has been recognized through national awards, including the “Best Paper 2019” by the Portuguese Society for Immunology and the “Best Paper 2022” by ISPA-Instituto Universitário (Prémio ISPA em Investigação em Psicologia e Ciências do Comportamento). To sustain my research program, I secured competitive funding as PI of two FCT-funded projects and as co-PI of a Work Package in a large N2020-FEDER infrastructure grant to develop the i3S animal facility. These achievements ensured the financial and technical autonomy of my research line. I have demonstrated strong leadership and mentoring capacity, supervising or co-supervising 1 postdoc, 3 PhD students, 12 MSc students, and 23 undergraduate research students. At i3S, I established and currently coordinate the behavioral core facility, supporting behavioral research in rodents across multiple labs. In addition to my research activities, I am an Assistant Professor in Ethology and Animal Welfare at ICBAS-UP, contributing to undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs. I am committed to fostering interdisciplinary teaching and training that bridges basic science and real-world animal health and welfare challenges. My scientific journey in ethology began in 1996 and spans a wide range of species and contexts, including research with fish, dolphins, dogs, cats, penguins, and rodents. This broad experience continues to shape my integrative and comparative approach to behavioral neuroscience.