Rafael Couto joined QCIF Digital Research in January 2026 as a Senior eResearch Analyst based at Griffith University, following several years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden.

He holds a joint PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from Royal Institute of Technology - KTH (Sweden) and the Federal University of Goiás (Brazil), awarded in 2016. His doctoral research focused on the simulation and interpretation of X-ray spectroscopy of molecular systems.

Rafael is passionate about developing research workflows and computational pipelines in Python for both local and high-performance computing (HPC) environments. He enjoys supporting researchers and higher degree research (HDR) candidates in building programming skills, adopting AI responsibly and effectively, and implementing reproducible research practices.

His interests also include research data management, open science, and making research outputs more accessible and reusable.

Outside of work, Rafael enjoys spending time outdoors with his family and sharing his love of cooking with them.