Seena. S, is a freshwater ecologist with ~ 20 years experience. Her main scientific activity revolves around the evaluation of anthropogenic pollution on aquatic biodiversity and freshwater ecosystem processes such as leaf litter decomposition. She is mainly appreciated for innovativeness and vibrancy. She did her PhD in Biosciences, Mangalore University, India, 2005. She was a postdoc in Canada (2005 -2007), Mount Allison University and auxiliary investigator (2008 -2013), Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology (CBMA), University of Minho (UM), Portugal. As a part of transnational programme between Portugal and Germany, she also did research in Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg and Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ (Germany) in 2011. She was a scientist at CBMA, UM (2013 -2015). She shifted to MARE as a post doc (2015-2019), University of Coimbra (UC), Portugal. Currently, she is an investigator at MARE, UC. She worked in 3 continents, in 6 different labs with the topmost scientist of her area, this deliberate choice to work in different labs, helped her to work independently from her PhD supervisor and to gain experience and recognition internationally. Overall, she was successful in attaining national projects (FCT) as a principal investigator and as team member (550,000¿). She supervised (including internships) a total of 20 students encompassing Ph.D., masters and bachelors and master fellows across the globe. Overall, published 58 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, out of which 3 papers are in fungal diversity with an impact factor of 20.3. Thirty seven out of 58 papers (63%)were published independently from PhD supervisor. She published as first author in 23 papers (40%) and as a corresponding author in journals like J Hazard Mater, Fungal Divers, Fungal Ecol and Sci Total Environ. She has 10 book chapters, 29 posters and 27 oral communications. In the last 5 years (along with maternity leave) she published 16 papers and 8 book chapters (4 as first and 2 as last author). She created a global network & was the PI of the crowdsource-based funding, involving 18 countries with over 30 researchers and institutions to study the latitudinal impact on fungal biodiversity in 19 globally distributed streams. She is a member AIL-Iberian Association of Limnology and board member of PROAQUA-Association for the Promotion of Knowledge. Three recent papers (DOI:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.01.122; DOI:10.1016/j.funeco.2019.02.011 and DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.128320) also had a wide newspaper coverage. Recently, she was invited for a talk in International Conference on 'Pollutant Toxic Ions and Molecules´ due to innovative nature of her work. Currently, she edited a book by Elsevier. In the past 5 years, her research mainly dealt with development/adaptation of new molecular and omics tools and novel ideas to unveil the current ecological and conservation problems for the first time, demanding significant investment of time in optimization and troubleshooting. She has gaps in the following years: 2007 (shifting from Canada to Portugal), 2012 & 2020 (maternity leave). For the past five years, she is actively publishing as the first and corresponding author in high-impact journals. Her H-index is 29 (google scholar). Recently, she was distinguished at the ceremony of the VISÃO / Águas de Portugal Green Awards, where she received a "Research Award". The prize is aimed at scientists who stand out in the area of environment and sustainable development in the current climate emergency.