Cecilia is from Uruguay in South America, where she obtained her BSc and MSc degrees in Neuroscience from Universidad de la Republica, working with Prof. Ana Silva and Prof. Laura Quintana on neuroethology.
Her PhD research focused on understanding local sex steroid synthesis in the brain and the regulation of social behaviour in a songbird model. She also developed novel methods for ultra-sensitive quantification of multiple estrogens (including 17beta-estradiol, 17alpha-estradiol, estrone, estriol, methoxyestrogens, and catecholestrogens) using LC-MS/MS. Cecilia held an Uruguay Graduate Scholarship and a Zoology Graduate Fellowship.