Rui F. Oliveira

Rui F. Oliveira is Professor and Chair of Biology and Neurosciences at ISPA - Instituto Universitário, Principal Investigator at the Gulbenkian Science Institute, and Adjunct Faculty of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Program. He previously served as Rector of ISPA from 2010 to 2020 and currently directs both the master's degree in Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience and the PhD Program in Behavioural Biology at ISPA.

His primary research interests focus on understanding the mechanisms underlying social behavior and their evolution using an integrative approach spanning from genes to neural circuits to behavior. He aims to understand how organisms became social—that is, how the cognitive, neural, and genetic mechanisms underlying sociality have evolved, and how the social environment can shape brain and behavior with major impacts on organismal function and disease. His work heavily utilizes zebrafish as a model organism to study social neuroethology.

Dr. Oliveira's recent publications reveal a strong emphasis on social neuroscience, particularly the role of nonapeptides like oxytocin in social behavior, emotional contagion, and social cognition. His research spans evolutionary biology, neuroendocrinology, and behavioral ecology, with a consistent focus on the molecular and neural mechanisms underlying social behavior in fish models. His work demonstrates how social behavior can be studied at multiple levels of analysis, from genes to whole organisms in social contexts.

• Elected member of EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization)
• President of the Society for Social Neuroscience (2016-2021)

Dr. Oliveira has mentored numerous students through his leadership of graduate programs at ISPA and has been deeply involved in science communication, including curating the major Science Exhibition "Brain: Wider than the Sky" at the Gulbenkian Foundation in 2019 and presenting the Gulbenkian Neuroscience Masterclass. His research group at the Gulbenkian Science Institute focuses on integrative behavioral biology and social neuroscience using fish models to understand the evolution of social behavior.