He started as the recipient of an Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources Research Chair and, in 2015, he was named Canada Research Chair in Invasive Species Biology. Dr. Antunes began his academic studies in Biology at the University of Evora, Portugal (1999). He then undertook his doctoral research in Soil Science at the University of Guelph (2005) followed by post-doctoral research at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. Research in his laboratory (Plant and Soil Ecology Laboratory) aims to understand soil organisms and their interactions with plants.