Arthur Porto
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
Academic Appointments
2023-Present Assistant Curator of Artificial Intelligence
University of Florida, Gainesville, US.
2021-2023 Assistant Professor
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, US.
2020-2020 Postdoctoral Fellow
Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, US.
2017-2020 Postdoctoral Fellow in Evolutionary Biology
Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo, Norway.
2016-2017 Assistant Research Scientist
South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, US.
2008-2010 Lecturer in Biological Sciences
Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil.
Education
2010-2016 PhD Evolution, Ecology and Population Biology
Department of Biology, Washington University in St Louis, US
Advisor: Dr. James M. Cheverud
2006-2009 Master of Sciences in Genetics and Evolutionary Biology
Departamento de Genetica e Biologia Evolutiva, Universidade de Sao Paulo,Brazil
Advisor: Dr. Gabriel Marroig
2002-2005 Bachelor of Science in Biology
Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil
Publications
Accepted
2024 L.H. Liow, A. Porto, E.D. Martino. 2024. Trait-fitness associations via fecundity and competition in a two-million-year-long fossil record. The American Naturalist (Accepted)
Published
2023 Duque, J.C.G., Balk, M., Dahdul, W., Lapp, H., Mikó, I., Alhajjar, E., Wynd, B., Tarasov, S., Lawrence, C., Khakurel, B. and Porto, A et al., 2024. Meeting Report for the Phenoscape TraitFest 2023 with Comments on Organising Interdisciplinary Meetings. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards vol.8, p.e115232.
2023 E. Di Martino, B. Berning, D.P. Gordon, P. Kuklinski, L.H. Liow, M.H. Ramsfjell, H.L. Ribeiro, A.M. Smith, P.D. Taylor, K.L. Voje, A. Waeschenbach, A. Porto. DeepBryo: a web app for AI-assisted morphometric characterization of cheilostome bryozoans. _Limnology and Oceanography:Methods vol.21(9), pp.542=-551.
2023 K.L.Voje, M. Grabowski, A. Holstad, A. Porto, M. Tsuboi, and G. Bolstad. 2023. Does lack of evolvability constrain adaptation? If so, on what timescales? In: Evolvability – a new and unifying concept in evolutionary biology? Editors, Thomas F. Hansen and Christophe Pelabon.The MIT Press.
2023 Hubbe,A., G. Garcia, H. Sebastião, A. Porto, F. Machado, J.M. Cheverud, G. Marroig. 2021. Morphological integration during postnatal ontogeny: implications for evolutionary biology. Evolution vol. 77(3), pp.763-775.
2022 Zhang,C., A. Porto, S. Rolfe, A. Kocatulum, A.M. Maga. 2022. Automated Landmarking via Multiple Templates. PLoS ONE vol.17(12): e0278035.
2022 Love, A.C., M. Grabowski, D. Houle, L.H. Liow, A. Porto, M. Tsuboi, K.J Voje and G. Hunt. 2022. Evolvability and the Fossil record. Paleobiology vol.48(2), pp.186-209.
2021 Lürig, M., S. Donoughe, E.I. Svensson, A. Porto and M. Tsuboi. 2021. Computer Vision, Machine Learning, and the Promise of Phenomics in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution vol. 9, p. 148.
2021Porto, A., S. Rolfe and A. M. Maga. 2021. ALPACA: a new and general computer vision framework for automated landmarking of 3D biological structures. Methods in Ecology and Evolution vol.12, p. 2129– 2144.
2021 Rolfe, S., S. Pieper, A. Porto, K. Diamond, J. Winchester, S. Shan, H. Kirveslahti, D. Boyer, A. Summers and A.M. Maga. 2021. SlicerMorph: An open and extensible platform to retrieve, visualize and analyse 3D morphology. Methods in Ecology and Evolution vol. 12(10), pp.1816-1825.
2020Porto,A. and K.J. Voje. 2020. ML-morph: A Fast, Accurate and General Approach for Automated Detection and Landmarking of Biological Structures in Images.Methods in Ecology and Evolution vol. 11(4), pp.500-512.
2020Voje, K.L., Di Martino, E. and A. Porto. 2020. Revisiting a landmark study-system: no evidence for punctuated equilibrium in Metrarabdotos. The American Naturalist vol. 195 (5),pp.899-917.
2019 Machado, F., Hubbe, A., Melo, D., Porto, A. and G. Marroig. 2019. Measuring the magnitude of morphological integration: the effect of differences in morphometric representations and the inclusion of size. Evolution vol. 73(12), p. 2518–2528.
2018 Porto, A. 2018. Variational Approaches to Evolvability: Short-and Long-Term Perspectives. Evolutionary Developmental Biology: A Reference Guide, Springer, 1-14.
2018 Porto, A., J. M. Peralta, N. B. Blackburn and J. Blangero. 2018. Reliability of genomic predictions of complex human phenotypes. BMC proceedings vol. 12(9), p. 51.
2018 Blackburn, N.B., A. Porto, J. M. Peralta and J. Blangero. 2018. Heritability and genetic associations of triglyceride and HDL-C levels using pedigree-based and empirical kinships. BMC proceedings vol. 12(9), p. 34.
2018 Peralta,J.M., N. B. Blackburn, A. Porto, J. Blangero, and J. Charlesworth. 2018. Genome-wide linkage scan for loci influencing plasma triglyceride levels. BMC proceedings vol. 12(9), p. 52.
2016 Porto, A., R. Schmelter$, J.L. Vandeberg, G. Marroig and J.M. Cheverud. 2016. Evolution of the genotype-to-phenotype map and the cost of pleiotropy in mammals. Genetics v.204(4), pp.1601-1612. $ mentored student co-autorship.
2016 Grabowski, M. G.* and A. Porto* 2016. How many more? Sample size determination in studies of morphological integration and evolvability. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, v.8(5), pp.592-603. *Co-first authors
2016 Melo, D.*, A. Porto *, J.M. Cheverud, and G. Marroig. 2016. Modularity: genes, development and evolution. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics v.47 (1). *Co-first authors
2015 Porto, A., H. Sebastiao, S. Pavan, J. L.VandeBerg, G. Marroig and J. M. Cheverud. 2015. Rate of evolutionary change in cranial morphology of the marsupial genus Monodelphis is constrained by the availability of additive genetic variation. Journal of Evolutionary Biology v.28(4), p.973-985. Finalist - Best Student Paper.
2013 Porto, A., F. B. de Oliveira, L. Shirai, G. Marroig. 2013. Size variation, growth strategies and the evolution of modularity in the mammalian skull. Evolution v.67, p.3305-3322.
2011 Marcelli, J. $, A.Porto. 2011. Análise da percepção sobre a fauna brasileira dos estudantes do Ensino Fundamental e Médio da cidade de São Paulo. Book chapter (Portuguese). $ mentored student authorship
2011 Marroig, G., D. Melo, A. Porto, H. Sebastiao, G.Garcia. 2011. Selection response decomposition (SRD): a new tool for dissecting differences and similarities between matrices. Evolutionary Biology v.38 (2), p.225-241.
2009 Oliveira, F.B. de, A. Porto, G. Marroig. 2009. Covariance structure in the skull of Old World Monkeys: a case of pattern stasis and magnitude evolution. Journal of Human Evolution v.56 (4), p.417-430.
2009 Porto, A., F. B. de Oliveira, L. Shirai, V.de Conto, G. Marroig. 2009. The evolution of modularity in the mammalian skull I: morphological integration patterns and magnitudes. Evolutionary Biology v. 36. p. 118-135.
2009 Marroig, G., L. Shirai, A. Porto, F.B. de Oliveira, V. De Conto. 2009. The Evolution of modularity in in the mammalian skull II: evolutionary consequences. Evolutionary Biology v.36. p. 136-148.
Teaching Experience
Undergraduate
2024Primary instructor, AI in Biology, University of Florida, US.
2021 Primary instructor, Evolution, Louisiana State University, US.
2015 Primary instructor, General Biology Lab, Loyola University Chicago, US.
2011-2012 Graduate Teaching Assistant, Evolution, Washington University in St Louis, US.
2009-2010 Primary instructor, Genetics I, Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil.
2009-2010 Primary instructor, Paleontology, Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil.
2009 Primary instructor, Genetics II, Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil.
2009 Primary instructor, Genetics for Nursing Practitioners, Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil.
2008-2009 Primary instructor, Evolution, Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil.
Graduate
2024Primary instructor, AI in Biology, University of Florida, US.
2017Invited instructor, Latin American School of Evolution, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil.
2010Primary instructor (Web), Topics in Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil.
Mentoring
Postdoctoral
University of Florida - Moritz Lurig (current)
Louisiana State University - Henrique Ribeiro (past)
Graduate Chair
Georgia Institute of Technology - Breanna Shi (current) - Co-Advised with Dr. Patrick McGrath
University of Florida - Emilio Mancero (upcoming)
Louisiana State University - Nevyn Neal (past)
Graduate Committee
Current
University of Florida - Department of Biology - Jacob Idec
Virginia Tech - Department of Biology - Caleb Charpentier
University of Florida - Department of Geological Sciences - Hyungjoo Jang
Past
University of Calgary - Jay Devine
Johns Hopkins University - Catherine Llera Martins
Universidade Federal do Sergipe - Kathleen Castro
James Cook University - César Herrera
Undergraduate
NSF-REU (2 total)
Students: Altan Kocatulum, Maximilian McKnight
Independent projects (25 total)
Students: Andrew da Silva, Juliete Marcelli Zanelli, Damaris Alegreti, Leila Primilla, Vivian Negreiros, Adriana Souza, Camila Santos, Angelica Fiedler, Ana Paula Croce, Jessica Fontes Chaves, Claudia Oliveira, Bruno Vinicius Cerqueira, Heather Caulkins, Katherine Pjevach, Alejandra Guevara, Ryan Schmelter, Sivaram Yeramati, Daphne Zuniga, Paraman Gallipalli, Soma Elefanti, Thomas Olinger-Jiang, Manas Adepu, Jun Tianzhong, Joseph Kim, Jordan Becci.
Grants, Fellowships and Awards
Grants/Fellowships
2022-2022 Academic Hardware Grant, Nvidia Corporation, US
2021-2023 Dean’s Strategic Funding - Codefests and Makerspaces, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, US
2019–2020 Research Fellow, Centre for Advanced Studies, Academy of Sciences and Letters, Norway
2014–2016 F31 Predoctoral Fellowship, National Institutes of Health, NIH- NIDCR , US
2006-2008 Master’s Research Fellowship, FAPESP, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2004-2005 Undergraduate Fellowship, FAPESP, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Awards
2021 Robert May Prize, British Ecological Society, UK
2018 Best talk by Early Career Researcher, Larwood Meeting, Wales, UK
2015 Initiative to Maximize Student Development (IMSD) Program Award, US
2015 Finalist - Best student paper of the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, ESEB.
2014 Under-represented minority award, International Mammalian Genomics Society, US
Selected Presentations
2023 7th Annual Digital Data Conference, Tempe, Arizona. A computer vision for organismal biology. (plenary).
2023 17th WinterLarwood Symposium __, Vienna, Austria. DeepBryo: a web app for AI-assisted morphometric characterization of cheilostome | bryozoan colonies. (contributed talk).
2023 __Geological Society of America Meeting, Pittsburgh, Pensylvannia. Leveraging metric learning for robust image classification: a case study on cheilostome bryozoans. (invited talk).
2023 Evolution Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Computer vision and the promise of phenomics in ecology and evolutionary biology. (invited talk).
2023 Digital Data Conference, Tempe, Arizona. A computer vision for organismal biology. (invited talk).
2023 Finnish Museum of Natural History, Helsinki, Finland. Computer vision approaches in biology: a tale of two methods. (invited talk).
2022 Frontiers in AI, Gainesville, Florida. A computer vision for organismal biology. (invited talk).
2022 Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida. Computer vision and the promise of phenomics in biology. (invited talk)
2022 19th IBA meeting, Dublin, Ireland. A web app for AI-assisted image segmentation of cheilostome bryozoans. (contributed talk)
2022 InteCol 2022, Geneva, Switzerland. DeepBryo: A simple and lightweight web app for AI-assisted phenomics of bryozoan colonies. (invited talk)
2021Museum of Natural Science, Baton Rouge, US. A new and general framework for automated landmarking of 3D biological structures.(contributed talk)
2021WEEKS lecture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, US. Harnessing the power of computer vision for paleobiology.(invited talk)
2021DXC Technologies, New Orleans, US. Computer vision approaches in biology. (invited talk)
2021SICB 2021, Online. ALPACA: a new and general framework for automated landmarking of 3D biological structures. (contributed talk)
2020Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, US. Connecting micro and macroevolution in a unique marine model system.(invited talk)
2020Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, US. Computer vision approaches for paleobiology.(invited talk)
2019Centre for Advanced Studies, Oslo, Norway. Phenomic tools for the study of evolvability.(contributed talk)
201918th IBA meeting, Liberec,Czech Republic. Morphological evolution of a single lineage through 2 million years: a study on Steginoporella magnifica. (contributed talk)
201815th Larwood meeting Cardiff, Wales. High-throughput phenotyping of Bryozoan specimens using machine learning: a Cheilostome case study. (contributed talk)
201716th ESEB meeting, Groningen, Netherlands. Connecting micro and macroevolution through quantitative genetics : a study on New World Marsupials. (contributed talk)
2017University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Texas, US. A QTL analysis of blood cholesterol traits in laboratory opossums.. (invited talk)
2015University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Texas, US. The genetic architecture of blood cholesterol traits in the short-tailed opossum, Monodelphis domestica. (invited talk)
2015Evolution Meeting 2015, Guaruja, Brazil. Pleiotropy as the genetics basis for the high craniofacial integration among marsupials. (contributed talk)
201428th International Mammalian Genome Conference, Guaruja, Brazil. The genetic basis of morphological variation in the skull of the gray short-tailed opossum, Monodelphis domestica. (contributed talk)
2014Evolution Meeting 2014, Raleigh, US. A preliminary analysis of ontogenetic integration in the gray short-tailed opossum,Monodelphis domestica. (contributed talk)
2013Evolution Meeting 2013, Snowbird, US. Evolutionary inference based on phenotypic covariation: testing assumptions using the marsupial genus Monodelphis. (contributed talk)
2013Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, US. Evolutionary inference based on phenotypic integration: testing assumptions using the marsupial genus Monodelphis. (invited talk)
2011Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, US. Constraints in the evolution of body size in mammals. (invited talk)
2009Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Size matters: morphological evolution of the mammalian skull. (invited talk)
Selected Abstracts
2024 SICB, Seattle, WA. M. McKnight, A. Porto, and A. Summers et al. A computerized method for efficient mass uCT scanning of otoliths and dense objects.
2024 SICB, Seattle, WA. Maga et al. 3D Slicer and SlicerMorph: A new frontier for 3D digital morphology.
2024 International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research Conference - IADR2024, New Orleans, LA. Chandrasekharan et al.Clinical Decision Support for Prosthodontic Diagnostic Index.
2023 PaleoDays 2023, Lecce, Italy. E.Di Martino and A.Porto. DeepBryo: a web app for bryozoan AI-assisted morphometric characterization.
2023 GSA Connect 2023, Pittsburgh, PA. E.Di Martino, A.Porto and LH.Liow. A cheilostome bryozoan story of fitness and phenotypes across two million years.
2023 IAFS 2023, Sydney, Australia. Choi et al. Open-Source Software for Dental 3D Surface Comparison in Routine Forensic Identification and Disaster Victim Identification Incidents.
Editorial Service
2020-2023 Associate Editor at Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
Expert Reviewer Service
Workshops CV4Ecology Summer Workshop at MIT.
JournalsPLOS Computational Biology, Scientific Reports, Nature Communications, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, Communications Biology, The American Naturalist, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Evolution, Journal of Biogeography, Ecology and Evolution, Journal of Morphology, PyOpen Sci, Journal of Zoology, Current Zoology, Revista Argentina de Antropología Biológica, Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, Zoological letters.
GrantsNational Science Foundation (NSF), The Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
Outreach
2024 Outreach talk Pixels for Paleo for the Florida Paleontological Society Meeting
2023 Interview for Quanta Magazine for the article Evoluttion: Fast or Slow? Lizards help resolve a paradox by Carrie Arnold
2023 Outreach talk AI in Biodiversity for the AI Days at University of Florida
2023 Florida Museum stand at the 2023 Fall Undergraduate Research Expo at University of Florida
2017 21st Legislative Tour of the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, US.
Direct conversation with Texas Lawmakers, with the goal of increasing the contact between local communities and policymakers.
2008-2009Itinerant exhibition “The giant cell”, São Paulo, Brazil.
Exhibition toured low-income high schools in São Paulo city for two academic years. I was involved in the planning, organization and presentation of the exhibition.
Press
2024 Whaganui Chronicle, Cliffs tell time: Fossil hunters excited by window into past at unique location.
2020 Phys.org, The most popular textbook example of punctuated evolution debunked.
2020 NRK, Forskergruppe i Norge mener klassisk studie av evolusjonen er feil.
Institutional Responsability
2024 Advisory Board, MorphoCloud, NSF, US.
2024 Search Committee Member, Department of Natural History, University of Florida, US.
2023 Organizer , AI Days Teaching and Research Symposium, University of Florida, US.
2021 Organizer , Codefests and Makerspaces, Louisiana State University, US.
2021 Search Committee Member, Department of Biology, Louisiana State University, US.
2018 Committee member and Organizer, Macroevolution Seminar Series, University of Oslo, Norway.
2011 Committee member and Organizer, EEPB Seminar Series, Washington University in St Louis, US.
Professional Workshops
Leader/Instructor
2021 FunkyMUG, George Washington University, Washington DC, US
2021 SlicerMorph, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, WA, US
2020 SlicerMorph, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, WA, US
Attended
2017 Genetic Analyses Workshop, GAW20, San Diego, CA, US
2015 Vertebrate Digitization, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, US
2014 Evolutionary Quantitative Genetics, NimBios, Knoxville, TN, US
2013 Non-model Genomics Workshop, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY,US
2004 Evolutionary Quantitative Genetics, University of São Paulo, Brazil
Consortia/ Working groups
2022-PresentImageomics 3D Working Group, NSF-Funded, Multinational.
2021-Present Big Questions in Paleontology, Multinational.
2019-PresentConsortium for automated image analyses of bryozoan colonies (BryoIMDB), Multinational.
2019-2021Evolvability Working Group, Centre for Advanced Studies, Norway.
Fieldwork
2024 Wanganui basin (Pliocene/Pleistocene), New Zealand.
2010 Tremembe formation, Taubate basin (Oligocene-Miocene), Brazil.
Software Contributions
2024 ModelMatch3D: 3D Model Comparison in Forensic Identification. (Main Author)
https://github.com/agporto/ModelMatch3D
2024 ModelColors: a Slicer module for 3d color segmentation. (Main Author)
https://github.com/agporto/ModelColors
2024 BioEncoder: a metric learning toolkit for comparative organismal biology. (Main Author)
https://github.com/agporto/BioEncoder
2023 DeepBryo: AI-assisted segmentation of cheilostome bryozoans. (Main Author)
https://github.com/agporto/DeepBryo
2022 pycpd: Pure Numpy Implementation of the Coherent Point Drift Algorithm. (Core contributor)
https://github.com/siavashk/pycpd
2022 Phenomorph Integration ml-morph and phenopype into a single image analysis pipeline (Main author)
https://github.com/phenopype/phenopype-contrib/tree/main/phenomorph
2020 SlicerMorph: Enables biologists to retrieve, visualize, measure and annotate high-resolution specimen data (Author of Modules)
https://github.com/SlicerMorph/SlicerMorph
2019 ml-morph: A fast, general and accurate approach for automated landmarking of biological images (Main Author)
https://github.com/agporto/ml-morph
Languages
Fluent: English and Portuguese
Intermediate: Spanish