Science

She has a PhD in Human Population Genetics, a Master's Degree in Applied Human Genetics and a degree in biology from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto.
She is Lead Researcher at the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (i3S). She studies the evolution of human populations and assesses their susceptibility to complex diseases.
She collaborates with anthropologists, geneticists and international clinicians to continue generating knowledge about the genetic diversity of populations from all continents.

Last updated: October 2023

Swedish biologist specialising in evolutionary genetics. He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2022 for sequencing the Neanderthal genome and discovering a previously unknown hominid. He is considered one of the founders of paleogenetics. Director of the Genetics Department at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. He has won several awards, including the Princess of Asturias Award in 2018. He is the author of the book «Neanderthal Man» (Gradiva, 2019), translated in partnership with the Foundation.

Maria Manuel Leitão Marques has a bachelor degree in Law from the University of Coimbra, and later obtained her PhD in Economics from the same University. She is a Full Professor at the Economics School of the University of Coimbra and researcher at the Centre for Social Studies since its foundation. She is also the Vice-president of Association Internationale de Droit Économique. Throughout her career, Maria Marques has participated and coordinated several national and internationl projects on the subjects of Economic and Competition Laws, as well as Legal Sociology and Public Administration. She has authored several books and articles on these specialized themes. Between 2005 and 2011, she was appointed Secretary of State for Administrative Modernization, being responsible for the Simplex program, under which the online acess platforms to government and public administration were implemented. Her current research interests focus on regulation of economy by the Government and innovation of public services. Currently serves as member of the High Level Group on Administrative Burdens of the European Commission. Resign in lieu of her election to the Portuguese Parliament, October 4, 2015.

Last updated: october 2023

Graduated in Marine Biology from Lisbon Classic University, in 1986, with executive education at IMD (1995) and Harvard (1997), and Alumni Member of Stanford (2000). Executive President of Sociedade Francisco Manuel dos Santos B.V., the main shareholder of Jerónimo Martins, SGPS, S.A., since its establishment in 2012. Member of the Board of Directors of Jerónimo Martins SGPS, S.A. from 1995 to 2001 and from 2004 to 2015. He is a Non-Executive Director of the Company since April 2019. Chairman of Unilever Fima, Lda., Gallo Worldwide, Lda., JMDB Representação e Distribuição de Marcas Lda. and miMed, Cuidados de Saúde S.A. Chairman of Movendo Capital B.V., since 2017. Since May 2020, he is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos, of which he was a Board Member from 2009 to 2018. Since September 2015, he is the Chairman of Oceanário de Lisboa, S.A., and, since December 2016, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and the Board of Directors of the Oceano Azul Foundation.

Last updated: may 2020

Professor Charles Boxer at King’s College London. He has a PhD from the European University Institute, taught at Nova University Lisbon and he was director of the National Library and director of the Gulbenkian Cultural Centre in Paris. Among his monographs, we highlight «Racism from the crusades to the 20th century» and «History of Inquisitions», published by Círculo de Leitores in English, French, Italian and Spanish versions.

Last updated: May 2023

He is a theoretical physicist, retired professor from the University of Lisbon School of Sciences and a researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences. He has always been interested in the theory of relativity and cosmology and the dissemination of Albert Einstein's work. The expansion and deceleration of the universe, the collision of black holes and gravitational waves were the subject of lectures and courses he gave at the Lisbon Astronomical Observatory, and to FCUL classes.

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

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

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

BPI / «La Caixa» Foundation professor of Health Economics at Nova School of Business and Economics, Nova University Lisbon. He is on the EC Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health, the National Council of Ethics for Life Sciences, the EU Cancer Mission Board and the National Health Council and is a member of the board of the Institute of Public Policy – Thomas Jefferson – Correia da Serra.

Last updated: May 2013