Newton Gomes obtained his Ph.D. in 1999 with specialization in Microbiology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Since then, he has been working in the field of environmental and applied microbiology with an emphasis on the assessment of structural and functional patterns of microbial communities, their importance for environmental health and their symbiotic interactions with plant and animal hosts. In addition to the above, he has a particular interest in cross-disciplinary science and knowledge transfer between research and industry. Newton Gomes’ professional experience includes 7 years as researcher at the Federal Research Centre Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI) (Braunschweig, Germany) and more than 17 years (2007-present) at the University of Aveiro (UAVR) (Aveiro, Portugal). Currently, Newton Gomes is coordinator of the Laboratory for Molecular Studies of Marine Environments (LEMAM) at the Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) at the UAVR (2009 – present). Since 2023-02-05 he is Principal Researcher with Habilitation at the UAVR.