My name is Xavier Silva and I have always been interested in biological sciences. In 2019 I engaged in a Bachelor’s degree in Biology in University of Aveiro. For three years I have focused on ecology and physiology subjects and in my second year, I realized that my main interest was in the ecotoxicological field. In my last year, I had the opportunity of developing my final research project in this area, supervised by professor Susana Loureiro. My final work was part of the i9rCB project, aiming to replace the traditional Carbon Black (a precursor of tyres) production methods with a more sustainable one, where Carbon Black was obtained from Ending-Life-Tyres, closing their cycle. My part of the project was assessing the effects of recovered Carbon Black elutriates on freshwater organisms in order to safely apply the method. My final project was graded 18/20 and I finished my Bachelor’s degree in 2022 with a final grade of 14/20. Later that year, I started my Master’s degree in Ecotoxicology and Risk Analysis in the same university. In the first year, I was awarded two research grants: a scientific research initiation grant and a graduated research grant in the same project where I conducted my Bachelor’s final research. The results from these grants allowed my to write my Master’s dissertation entitled “Ecotoxicity of recovered Carbon Black elutriates on freshwater organisms”, supervised by professor Susana Loureiro. My dissertation was graded 19/20 and I finished my Master’s degree in 2024 with a final grade of 18/20. During these years I have gained experience with many lab equipment such as: micropipettes, climatic chambers, laminar flow cabinets, microplate readers, filtration systems, orbital shakers, centrifuges, multiparametric probes and general lab equipment. I also have experience with lab maintenance and organization, freshwater organisms culturing, ecotoxicological media assembling, freshwater ecotoxicity assays as well as general statistical analysis (e.g. analysis of variance, non-linear sigmoidal regressions and respective ecotoxicological parameters – effect concentrations, lethal concentrations, no observed effect concentration and lowest observed effect concentration). I intend to continue my studies in the ecotoxicological field and contribute to a environmentally safe planet.