Ricardo obtained Masters and PhD degree in organic chemistry at Federal University of Paraná (Brazil). During his PhD, he spent one year as a visiting PhD at Prof. Steven Ley’s group at the University of Cambridge. Ricardo returned to the Ley group in 2016 as a post-doctoral research associate under an Ely Lilly-funded position working on the preparation of pharmaceutical compounds via the development of machine-assisted reaction sequences using continuous flow chemistry.

Ricardo then moved to the University of Leeds in November 2018 to work as a research fellow under the EPSRC project ‘Cognitive Chemical Manufacturing’ that is developing an Industry 4.0 approach coupling machine learning algorithms to a cyber-physical reactor platform.