I was born in Paraná (Argentina). Throughout my childhood, my family immigrated several times because of economical crises: Los Angeles, Málaga (Spain) and finally Riccione (Italy).

My interest in Biology, Genetics, and Wildlife Conservation led me to the University of Bologna. Here, I obtained Bachelor and Master degrees magna cum laude in Biotechnology and Science and Management of Natural Resources, in 2015 and 2017.

I carried out a 6-month Erasmus+ internship at the Estación Biologica de Doñana (CSIC), Spain, in Dr. J.A. Godoy’s research group, whose main interests are the genetic monitoring and conservation of the Iberian Lynx. I collaborated with the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests, Lisbon, to survey a newly established lynx population in Southern Portugal.

My Master Thesis was entitled “Implementation of SNPs for the Conservation of the Endangered Iberian Lynx”, with supervisors J.A. Godoy and M. Passamonti.

My current PhD project, “GENALPIC: Conservation Genomics of Endangered Alpine Ichthyofauna”, is co-funded by Liverpool John Moores University and FEM. My Director of Studies is Prof. Richard Brown (LJMU) and my supervisor is Dr. Andrea Gandolfi (FEM). I’m interested in disentangling the genetic structure of endemic Italian pike and marble trout populations, while also looking for signs of selection along the genome, with the ultimate goal of producing novel genetic tools to aid in the conservation of these species.

PhD project: GENALPIC: Conservation Genomics of Endangered Alpine Ichthyofauna.

Department and supervisor: Department of Biodiversity and Molecular Ecology (DBEM), Conservation Genetics Unit, Dr. Andrea Gandolfi; Computational Biology Unit, Dr. Diego Micheletti

Email: barbarasofia.ilardo@fmach.it

Further information: twitter.com/IlardoSofia