Adriane
Bulhões
Earth Sciences Researcher. Bahia, Ireland, New Zealand.
Photo in the field, coming soon
I grew up between
roots and tide.
I have liked geology since childhood. Volcanoes, rocks, the idea that what we walk on has layers and age. I grew up in Salvador and spent my holidays on the Island of Bom Jesus dos Passos, where my family are shellfish gatherers and fishers. That is where I gained my love for the ocean, which has never left me.
The interest in geology came on its own, early. I used to go to natural history museums to see the rocks on display, and still today, when I arrive in a new country, I look straight away for its geology and its museums. I liked being close to it all, even without yet knowing what to do with that interest.
It was at Chapada Diamantina, before university, that I understood I wanted to work with this. The quartzite plateau, the caves, geological time visible in the rock. I left with the question already decided.
At university the interest gained method. I have a degree in Science and Technology from UFBA, with courses in Ecology, Oceanography, Earth Sciences and Geology. I remember walking through the corridors and stopping in front of the exposed rock samples, with the same curiosity I had had in museums as a child. I also have a postgraduate qualification in Full Stack Web Development, which I use to work with data, visualisation and automation.
After university I lived in Ireland, and now on Waiheke Island, in New Zealand, where the coastal volcanic geology gives me a new way of looking at the same questions. Three countries, three different relationships between a community and its environment. That changed considerably the way I think about science.
The ocean and the rock were the passions of my childhood, and they remain the centre of what I study.