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Dina Fonseca
Dina Fonseca is a molecular ecologist. Fonseca is tenured Full Professor at Rutgers University.

Biography and Educational Background
As a child growing up in Portugal, Fonseca originally wanted to become a vet. As Portugal had a relatively equal amount of women and men in the sciences, Fonseca grew up with many inspiring role models both in the field of science and in her schools throughout her upbringing. Fonseca received her undergraduate degree from the University of Coimbra. Her research bachelors degree was in Biology. During her undergrad, Fonseca's mentor was Dr. Manuel Simoes Graca who was a Teaching Assistant at the university. Fonseca was later hired as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Coimbra. After encouragement from another mentor, Fonseca traveled to Beaver Island in Lake Michigan to take some courses and later to study for her Master's at Central Michigan University. Fonseca later received her PhD in Ecology and Evolution at the University of Pennsylvania.

Fonseca has two sons born in 2001 and 2007.

Career
During Fonseca's work towards her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania, Fonseca studied ecological questions surrounding the blackfly larvae. After receiving her degrees, Fonseca took part in a two-year Smithsonian post-doc fellowship at the National Zoo. Here she studied molecular genetics alongside Dr. Robert Fleischer. It was here that Fonseca also developed molecular tools that aided with the study of mosquitoes that transmit avian malaria to birds in Hawaii and West Nile Virus in the United States. Following this work, Fonseca took on a two-year National Research Council Associateship at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research where she was advised by Dr. Richard Wilkerson. During her career as an ecologist, Fonseca spent a month in Kenya near Lake Victoria. Her studies surrounded the vectors and parasites spreading human malaria in Eastern Africa. Fonseca's dedication and achievements helped her earn funding for research between 2000 and 2003. This funding allowed her to establish her own independent lab in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the the Academy of Natural Science (ANS). Following the establishment of her lab, Fonseca took on a job at the Academy of Natural Science in October of 2004. Fonseca's work in ecology continued when she went on to work at Rutgers University in March of 2007. The same year, Fonseca was a founding member of the Worldwide Insecticide resistance Network. At Rutgers University, Fonseca has taken on many projects at the Center for Vector Biology at Rutgers including a cooperative agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture.

Honors and Awards
Smithsonian Post-doc Fellowship, awarded August 1996

National Research Council Associateship, awarded September 1998

Academy of Natural Sciences Excellence Award in Staff Development, awarded June 2005

Rutgers University Team Excellence Award, awarded June 2013

George C. Burch Fellowship in Theoretical Medicine at the Smithsonian, awarded June 2015