Fernando is an Honours student in the Marine Omics research group at James Cook University in Townsville. His research focuses on assembling the first reference genome for an Antarctic octopus and for the family Megaleledonidae. This work will generate an important genomic resource for Antarctic and cephalopod research, enabling comparative analyses to explore how evolution in polar conditions shapes genome structure. Outside academia, he enjoys scuba diving and spending time in the ocean, always keeping an eye out for octopuses.