About the author

I was born in 1973 in Pelotas, in southern Brazil. My interest in agriculture began early, influenced by relatives and family friends who worked in agricultural sciences. My high school education in a rural school further strengthened this connection. I graduated in agronomy in 1996 and later pursued graduate studies in plant pathology at the Federal University of Pelotas. During my doctoral research, I worked on the epidemiology and modeling of Fusarium head blight, an important disease of wheat.

Part of my doctoral training was completed during a one-year visit to Cornell University. I later held a postdoctoral position at Iowa State University, where I worked on disease risk assessment and prediction. In 2006, I returned to Brazil as an assistant professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, where I worked for eight years in teaching, research, and student supervision in plant disease epidemiology. In 2014, I joined the Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), where I currently serve as full professor and supervise master’s and doctoral students.

Open science has been a consistent part of my academic work. In my lab, we use R for statistical analysis, data processing, and reproducible research. We also share scripts, preprints, and open-access outputs when possible.

This approach also shaped the development of R for Plant Disease Epidemiology, which was written with open-source tools and published in an open format. This allows the book to remain accessible and to be revised as methods, data, and software evolve.

I dedicate this book to my wife, Isabel, and our son, Vitor, for their support throughout the writing and revision of this book.