Science

Geneticista e investigador na University College London (UCL) é também apresentador de programas de rádio e televisão e autor de vários livros sobre ciência, religião e cinema. No Institute of Child Health da UCL, integrou um projeto de investigação sobre o papel da retina na identificação da base genética de um tipo de cegueira, tendo-se doutorado com uma tese nessa área. Para a BBC, concebeu e apresentou programas como «The Cell on the History of Biology», «Playing God», «The Gene Code» e «Science Betrayed», entre muitos outros. Em «Creation: The Origin of Life & The Future of Life», obra nomeada para o Wellcome Trust Book Prize, defende a teoria de que a vida poderá não ter surgido no «caldo primordial» e debruça-se sobre questões ligadas à biologia sintética, isto é, à modificação dos genes por ação humana e à criação de novos organismos para fins terapêuticos ou industriais. Mais recentemente, publicou «A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes» e «The Book of Humans: The Story of How We Became Us».

Última atualização: novembro de 2019

An astrobiologist and international expert on the origin and evolution of life in the universe, she is Professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), where she created Portugal’s first astrobiology and chemistry of the cosmos research department. She is also Co-Director of the MIT-Portugal programme, a partnership between IST and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With a PhD from the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands, she has dedicated herself to studying the potential contribution of organic compounds present in meteorites and comets to the origin of life on Earth and searching for signs of life on Mars, the moons of the Solar System and extrasolar planets. She has participated in several space missions as a NASA Guest Scientist (2005/6), taught at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis in France and was Researcher at Imperial College in London between 2009 and 2017. She currently collaborates on various European Space Agency missions and is part of the national science team for the Japanese Hayabusa2 space mission. A member of the Committee of the Astrobiology Society of Great Britain and national representative of the Executive Committee of the European Astrobiology Association, she was appointed an Officer of the Military Order of Sant'Iago de Espada (2015).

Last updated: November 2019

A specialist in planetary astronomy, she is Researcher at the Colorado Space Science Institute and a renowned interpreter of NASA space mission photographs. She received her PhD from the Department of Planetary and Geological Sciences at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). She was part of the team responsible for analysing the thousands of photographs and data sent by the Voyager II mission to the planet Uranus (1986) and Neptune (1989). She directed the imaging team of the Cassini-Huygens probe and the Central Imaging Laboratory of the Colorado Space Science Institute, as well as Diamond Sky Productions, a company dedicated to disseminating science and the artistic, graphic and computer processing of planetary images. She collaborates with publications such as The Guardian, American Scientist and The London Sunday Times. She was awarded the Isaac Asimov Prize and the Carl Sagan Medal. In 1998, Asteroid 7231 was renamed «Asteroid 7231 Porco» in her honour.

Born in Verona, Italy, in 1956, Carlo Rovelli decided to specialise in theoretical physics, having studied at the Universities of Bologna and Padova. He worked at the University of Pittsburgh and is currently at the University of Aix-Marseille, France, where he heads the Quantum Gravity group at the Luminy Centre for Theoretical Physics. Rovelli was one of the founders of the loop theory of quantum gravity, today one of the most likely candidates for merging quantum theory with Einstein's theory of general relativity. He has contributed to the history and philosophy of science, notably through the publication of a book on the Greek philosopher Anaximander and an important re-evaluation of Aristotle's physics. The author of various books acclaimed by the general public and critics alike, one of his most successful was «Seven Brief Lessons in Physics», which has been translated into 41 languages and sold over 1.2 million copies. More recently, he published «The Order of Time. Foreign Policy» magazine considered him one of the hundred most influential «Global Thinkers».

Last updated: November 2019

Theoretical Physicist at CENTRA, Full Professor and Chairman of the Physics department at Instituto Superior Técnico. His research focuses on astrophysics and gravitation, particularly the physics of curved space-time, gravitational waves and black holes. He is the author of a book and around 200 articles published in international journals. His research has been honoured twice by the European Research Council.
In 2015, the President of the Republic awarded him the Order of Santiago D'Espada for his contributions to science. He is currently the leader of GWverse, an international consortium of over 30 countries and hundreds of scientists dedicated to studying gravitational waves and black holes. He is a founding member of the Portuguese Society of Relativity and Gravitation.

Last updated: March 2021

Holder of the Henry Semat Chair in Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York, he has taught at CUNY School, Harvard and Princeton for several decades. He has specialised in Einstein's unified field theory (which he has been trying to complete) and in predicting trends in business, medicine, financial dynamics and our way of life in general. Co-author of string theory, Kaku's greatest ambition is to make Einstein's dream come true: to find a «theory of everything» that encapsulates all the physical laws of the universe. His many books include «The Future of Humanity», «Cyberspace», «The Future of the Mind», «The Physics of the Future» and «The Physics of the Impossible», all of which have been huge commercial successes . He regularly participates in television programmes and moderates science programmes on television and radio. The public face of the Science Channel, Michio Kaku also presented the BBC’s Visions of the Future, a documentary about the future of science, and a 12-part science series based on his best-selling book «The Physics of the Impossible», as well as regularly appearing on Fox News programmes. His articles have appeared in Time, New Scientist Magazine, Wired Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Washington Post.

A journalist, he was Director of News at RTP and TVI, simultaneously editing and presenting Telejornal (RTP) and Jornal das 8 (TVI). He began his career in radio and, in 1992, was part of the team that founded the first private television station in Portugal, SIC, where he presented Jornal da Noite. He taught at the Escola Superior de Comunicação Social and co-coordinated the Postgraduate Course in Journalism at ISCTE/Media Capital. At the invitation of the President of the Republic, he inaugurated the programme «Journalists in Belém Palace» in 2018.

He has a master’s degree in legal and political sciences and a law degree. A professional lawyer with over 15 years’ experience, he has also been a member of Parliament (2011-2013) and Secretary of State for Tourism (2013-2015). Furthermore, he served as vice-president of the CDS-PP (2016-2019). He has been a commentator and columnist for SIC, TSF, Visão, Jornal de Negócios, Diário de Notícias and i.

Last updated: April 2023

Historian, philosopher, researcher and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He holds a doctorate in History from Oxford University.
Author of the bestsellers «Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind», «Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow» and «21 Lessons for the 21st Century», his books have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and translated into 65 languages. The historian has also twice been awarded the Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality in the Humanities (2009 and 2012).
He regularly discusses global issues with heads of state and government, such as former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Harari has also met with French President Emmanuel Macron and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Following the international success of his books, he co-founded «Sapienship», a company with projects in the areas of entertainment and education, whose main objective is to raise public awareness and promote debate of today's most important global challenges.

Last updated: May 2023

He is one of the world's leading authorities on the impact of technology on business and society. Co-founder and Executive Chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute, Adjunct Professor at INSEAD and Chancellor of Trent University, Ontario.
Author of 16 books, including «Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything», translated into 25 languages, he has been developing innovative concepts for over three decades. His 1992 bestseller, «Paradigm Shift», helped coin the concept, while his 1995 book «The Digital Economy» changed business thinking about the Internet’s transformational capacity. Two years later, he helped popularise concepts such as «Net Generation» and the «Digital Divide».
He has been a member of the Order of Canada since 2019.

Last updated: June 2023