Joel Alves earned his BSc (2008) and MSc (2010) from the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Porto. Shortly thereafter, he was awarded a scholarship for a PhD in Genetics at the University of Cambridge, where he focused on rabbit genomics and historical DNA, completing his degree in 2016. He remained at Cambridge as a postdoctoral researcher until 2018, after which he joined the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford. During this period, he also spent several months conducting research at the Ancient Laboratory of GeoGenetics in Copenhagen and the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Alves has published on a broad range of topics in some of the highest-impact journals, including three articles in Science. He has participated in numerous R&D projects—initially as a PhD student—and since he became an independent researcher, he has secured multiple research grants to investigate multiple questions, primarily using ancient and historical DNA. In 2021, he was appointed a Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford. He has served on the boards of organisations such as the Cambridge University Portuguese Speakers Society (CUPortSS) and the Portuguese Association of Researchers and Students in the United Kingdom (PARSUK). Currently based at the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Alves also holds a dual affiliation with the Biopolis-CIBIO Institute in Portugal. In addition, he is an Invited Professor at the University of Porto, contributing to the first MSc degree offered in Angola with a European double degree, where he oversees the Science Communication module. Alves has and continues to supervise multiple MSc and PhD theses. His research sits at the frontier of natural and social sciences interest, where he uses ancient and historical DNA to research a wide range of questions, ranging from domestication to the movement of animals in ancient times. He is heading a newly established unit at Biopolis focused on Strategic Projects and Innovation, facilitating collaborations between academia, industry, and civil society. One of the outputs of this unit was the creation of “The Diary of a Scientist” in partnership with the newspaper Público, a pioneering science communication initiative in Portugal that gathered journalists and scientists to work together on science dissemination. He has also led projects to strengthen ties between the global North and South, winning a grant from the Oxford African Initiative to foster researcher exchanges. Most recently, he has undertaken the development and launch of Portugal’s first Ancient DNA facility.