Joaquina (Jo) Pires-O’Brien

Freelance Translator & Interpreter

Language Pairs: English into/to Portuguese

                                           

Location:              East Anglia, UK

Email:                     jopiresobrien@portvitoria.com

Mob:                       07771 691 481

 


CURRICULUM VITAE – June 2010

» Education

08.1972 – 06.1974. Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Biological Sciences Department, Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil.

 

09.1975 – 06.1977. Central Washington State College, Department of Biology, Ellensburg, Washington, U.S.A. B.A. (Cum Laude); double major : Botany.

 

03.1979 – 04.1980. Oregon State University, Department of Botany & Plant Pathology, Corvallis, Oregon, U.S.A. M.Sc.; major: Botany; minor: combined (Statistics & Genetics).

 

10.1988 – 04.1991. University College London, Department of Biology & Plant Pathology, London, UK and The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK. PhD.

 

 » Vocational Qualifications

 

2003    Diploma in Public Service Interpreting (DPSI) in English Law. Awarded by the Chartered Institute of Linguists Educational Trust.

2005    Diploma in Translation. English into Portuguese. Semi-specialism: science and technology. Awarded by the Chartered Institute of Linguists Educational Trust.

 

» Professional Experience in Translation

 

Jul 1998. Started up as a freelance translator, interpreter and abstractor.  My first clients were Pira International (Leatherhead), Atlas Translations (Cambridge), the UEA School of Art Studies and Museology (Norwich), and Riaza Language Services (Norwich).

 

1987    Zobel Forestry Associates, Durham, N.C., U.S.A. Interpreted Dr Bruce Zobel’s talk at Companhia Florestal Monte Dourado, in Pará, and later translated his technical report from English into Portuguese.

 

Other translations:  a master’s thesis in educational psychology, a manual about water and mineral resources, pamphlets for various government agencies in Brazil, scientific abstracts etc.

 

Translation Areas

My recognised qualifications and varied experience enable me to successfully provide high quality translation and interpreting in:

 

Present and Former Clients

» Other Professional Experience

 Previous Career (Brazil)

In my first career I was as Botanist & Ecologist Researcher. After finishing my master’s program at Oregon State University, in April 1980, I went to work at the National Science & Technology Development Council, CNPq, in Brasília. In 1982 I got a job as an international consultant for the Interamerican Institute for Agriculture Cooperation (IICA),  seconded to EMBRAPA’s National Genetic Resources & Biotechnology Centre (CENARGEN). In August 1985 I moved to the valley of Jari, in the northern part of the State of Pará, to work as a forest botanist at Companhia Florestal Monte Dourado. In September 1988 I moved to London to study for a PhD at University College London (UCL) and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Having obtained my Ph.D. in June 1991, I moved to Belém, State of Pará, to work as a researcher at the Goeldi Museum (Museu Paraense Emilio Geoldi), one of the two major research centres in the Brazilian Amazon region. In January 1994 I spent one year as a visiting lecturer at Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias do Pará – FCAP, a school of Agriculture, Husbandry and Forestry now part of UFPA.

 

I have also worked as an environmental consultant both in Brazil and in the UK. In 1993 I participated in a team set up by the Smart Wood Program of the Rain Forest Alliance, New York, U.S.A., to evaluate a project of mahogany forest regeneration with views of timber certification. From 1996 to 1997 I worked foot the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), Cambridge, UK., in the project Conservation and Sustainable Management of Trees.

 

Editor and Freelance Writer

I started to write essays, articles of opinion and book reviews after moving to England in 1995, and since 1999  I have been a frequent contributor to Contemporary Review, Oxford. My current writing project is to complete a series of interlinked essays about the separation between the social and the traditional sciences.

 

» Professional Affiliations

The Linnaean Society of London – since 1991

Chartered Institute of Linguists (London) - 020505

National Registration of Public Service Interpreters (London) - 12568

American Translators Association (Alexandria, VA) - 241306