MENTEE Raquel Rocha

Raquel was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She completed her Bachelor of Chemistry at Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil) with some research stays and internships at University Graz (Austria) and the Research Center Jülich (Germany). In July of 2019 Raquel moved to Australia to develop her PhD studies on ‘Continuous Flow Biocatalysis’. Her project is a cooperation between the Speight Lab (Queensland University of Technology) and CSIRO Biocat & SynBio Team. Raquel’s PhD research critically addresses key factors for the translation of continuous-flow biocatalysis from an academic to an industrially applied approach. Besides the competitive QUT South American Scholarship and QUT HDR Tuition Fee Sponsorship, she was awarded a PhD Top-Up scholarship of CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform (SynBio FSP). Joining the SynBio FSP allows Raquel to be constantly integrated with the community of Synthetic Biology in Australia via workshops, seminars, etc. Raquel is currently also part of the prestigious Bayer Foundation Fellowship.

In her free time, Raquel enjoys deepening her sensorial skills in wine tasting. In addition, she’s a gastronomy and Art enthusiast  – the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra is her favourite spot to recharge creativity and energy! Raquel is also passionate about learning new languages and is always happy to practice her skills in the German language.