Luís A. da S. Borda de Água first academic degree was in electrical engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Portugal. He then took an MSc in plasma physics at IST while being a teaching assistant in the department of electrical engineering of the same institution. This was followed by a two-year fellowship at University of Kyoto, Japan, where he worked on computer simulations of space plasmas. During this period, and partially due to a long-standing fascination with biology, his interests gradually shifted to environmental problems and, in particular, to conservation biology. These interests led him to take an MSc in ecological management and a PhD in biology at Imperial College, University of London. After this, he worked in the United States and Canada for eight years before returning to Portugal. While in USA he became deeply involved in the Biodiversity Science and Education Initiative, led by Professor Stephen P. Hubbell, hosted by the Smithsonian Institution and financed by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The primary purpose what this initiative was to develop policies to increase the number of research and education outreaching programmes on biodiversity. In his research activity, he has worked on numerical ecology where he has applied the mathematical and computational skills acquired while studying electrical engineering and physics. His main interests have been the characterization of large-scale biodiversity patterns and the viability of animal populations affected by anthropogenic disturbances. His research on biodiversity patterns has employed a variety of methods, from fractals and multifractals to image analysis and, more recently, extreme value theory. On the topic of the viability of animal populations he has focused on the development of simulation software and Bayesian methods.