The EMBL Pen Pals programme was created in 2020 by Mariana R.P. Alves and Rafael Galupa, following Alves' visit to Abuja, NG and Ibadan, NG.

Between 1983 and 1986, Goldman attended the University of Cambridge where he obtained a BA (Hons.) in Mathematics. He joined EMBL-EBI in 2002 as a Group Leader. His research focuses on the development of data analysis methods for the study of molecular sequence evolution and for the exploitation of evolutionary information to draw powerful and robust inferences about phylogenetic history and genomic function.