Guilherme Frainer
Dr. Guilherme Frainer was born and grew up in Porto Alegre-RS, southern Brazil. His academic career was based in the Department of Zoology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), where he concluded a bachelor in Biological Sciences studying the taxonomy and systematics of freshwater fishes. During his masters and the PhD he investigated the ontogeny, evolution and functional morphology of the sound generating structures in dolphins, especially the endangered Franciscana dolphin. The main idea was to answer how dolphins evolved different head shapes into similar sound production capabilities, and how unique features might reflect the natural history of some particular species. He has a great interest in the classification and evolution of cetacean acoustic behaviours, particularly in toothed whales. Guilherme is now enrolled in a post-doc position at the Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Cape Town, to investigate ways to classify dolphin sounds at species level using machine learning approaches. This study is part of the project investigating humpback dolphin bioacoustics and population dynamics in collaboration with Sea Search Research and Conservation and the SouSA Consortium.