Nicola Gambardella is a research assistant at CIIMAR (Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental), a research institute affiliated with the University of Porto. His current work implies the analysis of microbial communities in permafrost environments, with a primary emphasis on identifying microorganisms involved in dimethylation and mercury reduction processes. Nicola conducted research in Portugal for six months as part of his master's thesis, granted by the European educational initiative "Erasmus+ Internship," which champions international mobility. Nicola is also active in the dissemination of scientific knowledge, as he participated in projects that facilitated engagement with high school students by showcasing the activities conducted in the laboratory (OCEAN3R). He obtained his bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Padua in 2021 and his master's degree in Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics at the same university in 2023. He committed to several workshops about remote sensing and data management and followed the courses to increase his coding skills, both in Python and R. Together and complementary with computational analysis, Nicola also participated in field work within different sampling campaigns in various locations, such as the Lima River and the Atlantic Ocean, contributing to the collection of material for the ATLANTIDA project.