Raul Bettencourt. I completed my PhD at Stockholm University in December 1999 in the field of molecular genetics, and went onto a postgraduate career as a Research Associate appointee at the University of Massachusetts/Medical School (2000- 2004). My research activities were then centered on the study of the molecular immune responses in Drosophila. In Aug. 2004, by the end of my 1st post-doc, I returned to the Azores islands where I continued my research work on innate immunity using the deep-sea vent mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus as a model organism. As a Portuguese scientist, I was granted, in 2005, the prestigious American Fulbright Research scholarship, to work during 8 months at Stony Brook University NY, and investigate host-parasite interactions in the hard clam Mercenaria. I have maintained since, a visiting scientist status at SUNNY Stony Brook until 2012. I was granted, in 2008 a CIENCIA work contract sponsored by FCT lending me opportunity to establish my own research group and engage into several international collaborations, and succeed with research funding applications both at the national and international levels, including the participation in H2020 funded projects. In 2011 and 2012, I have taken on the supervision of 3 PhD students, funded by FCT and the Azorean Regional Fund FRCT; and one FCT- funded post-doc. In June 2017 I have embraced a career move and went on to work at the 3B’s Research group, University of Minho in Portugal and thus shifting my scientific career, toward the exploitation of marine natural products for their development into new biomaterials for biomedical applications and skin regeneration. After my contract ended at the University of Minho, I moved to the University of Coimbra in October 2019, to work as a Research Associate, on parasitic infections caused by nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus in the portuguese pinewood. In March 2020 my work at the University of Coimbra was interrupted due to governmental contingency measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, and in October this year, following an invitation from the regional government of the Azores, I left the University of Coimbra to embrace another career move at my home town hospital in Faial island, to work as the first PhD researcher ever hired by the Hospital board of Directors, setting up and leading the Covid-19 laboratory, and implementing SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR testing to the population. In August 2021, I moved back to my former academic institute to reestablish myself as an independent Research Associate to continue my former work on the exploitation of marine natural products and their potential biotechnological applications, particularly marine bacteria from deep-sea sediments in the Azores. Throughout my scientific career I have consistently published my work in peer-reviewed journals as reported in my Web of Science ResearchID Publons metrics (as of February 2022): total articles in publication list: 58; sum of the times cited: 1059; h-index: 19