David Gonçalves has a MSc degree in Biology by the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon and a PhD in Eco-physiology, by the same institution. He carried out his post-doctoral studies in ISPA, focusing on the neuroendocrine regulation of fish reproductive behaviour. Nowadays is one of the new CCMAR members.
His research has focused on how the neural and endocrine mechanisms interact in the regulation of fish reproductive behaviour.

This research will now be expanded to genetics, with the application of techniques that will allow the identification of the main genes involved in neuroendocrine modulation of fish reproductive behaviour.
The species David Gonçalves uses as a model for studying these issues is the blenniid S. pavo.

The males can reproduce via the acquisition of nests from which they court the females or, in the case of young males, they mimick female morphology and behaviour in order to get close to the nests of older males and fertilize, in a parasitical way, some of the eggs. The way genetic, endocrine and neural mechanisms interact to induce the observed behavioural differences between these reproductive polymorphisms is the central issue of his research.