Murilo qualified as an agronomist (1988) with an MSc in Plant Pathology/Virology by the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV, Brazil, 1991), and a PhD in Plant Pathology/Virology by the University of California, Davis (1996). He has been Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at UFV since 1996. His main research interest is the ecology and evolution of plant ssDNA viruses. His early years at UFV coincided with the explosive emergence of begomoviruses (whitefly-transmitted geminiviruses) in Brazil, and his lab was involved in the characterization of several of these viruses. Nowadays, his lab studies begomoviruses at the interface between crops and wild hosts, with a special interest in the factors involved in spillover from wild hosts to crops. He was associate editor of Annals of Applied Biology, Archives of Virology, Plant Pathology, Tropical Plant Pathology (EIC from 2021 to 2017) and Virology, and is currently an editorial board member of the Journal of General Virology and Virus Evolution. He joined the ICTV Geminiviridae Study Group in 2002, and the Potyviridae Study Group in 2006. He joined the ICTV Executive Committee as an elected member in 2014, became chair of the Plant Virus Subcommittee in 2017, and President in 2020. He was re-elected for a second three-year term as ICTV President in 2023.