Science

He has been Director General of the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) since 1 September 2014. He is Professor of Nanotechnology at Lund University, Sweden, and founder of several Swedish companies working with nanotechnology. He is also President of the International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications (IUVSTA), which has more than 150,000 members from 32 countries. He is a member of the EC Executive High Level Group (HLG) at DG NMPB and Chairman of the Working Group of two European Technology Platforms: NANOFutures (European initiative for sustainable development through nanotechnologies) and EuMat (European platform for advanced engineering materials and technologies). Between 2003 and 2009, he was Dean of the Physics Department, Science and Engineering Faculties at Lund University and, between 2009 and 2011, he was director for the Öresund University and Öresund Science Region (ÖSR) initiative, a cross-border cooperation initiative between 11 universities and three regional authorities from two countries in the Öresund Region. He was Chairman of the Swedish Committee for Technical Standardisation in Nanotechnology from 2007 to 2014 and has written around 300 indexed international publications.

Last updated: October 2021

He has a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico and a PhD in Chemistry from Oxford University, he has worked in science and in the arts. IST professor of physics and chemistry and associate professor of chemical engineering at Cornell University (USA), he has devoted himself to the thermodynamics of molecular liquids and has taught more than one hundred PhD courses (direct and secondary). In 2011 (International Year of Chemistry), he published «Let There Be Light – A History of Chemistry Through Everything». He founded and directed the first courses in Portugal on the management of the arts at the National Institute of Administration. A cultural critic at the Expresso newspaper, he started the National Photography Collection and has curated more than twenty photography exhibitions in Portugal, Belgium, France, England and the USA.

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.

Leads the Foundation's Digital & Social Content Management team.
She coordinated the Digital Area and the Fronteiras XXI project, with a monthly debate program in a partnership with RTP, the national Portuguese television.
Joana Ferreira da Costa was a journalist between 1997 and 2016. She worked for 11 years at the daily newspaper «Público» writing about Science, Health Policies and Politics, having been a resident's reporter at Parliament. She then worked as a sub-editor at «Diário de Notícias» and at weekly newspaper «Sol».
She has a degree in Social and Cultural Communication from the Portuguese Catholic University.

Last update: march 2023

She is a writer, teacher, literary critic and communicator. She has worked in the dissemination of Books and Literature in the press and on television for 30 years, at dissemination events and writing workshops and tutoring.
Currently, she is editor of «Ler» magazine, she writes literary criticism in the «Sol» newspaper, coordinates and teaches a post-graduate degree in fiction writing at Universidade Lusófona, she is responsible for the communication of Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos essays and portraits, part of the communication office of ULS Médio Tejo, coordinates the Dom Luis I Foundation programme of International Writing Residences and is on the Cultural Council of the Eça de Queiroz Foundation.
She is the author of the novel «This Is My Body», translated into seven languages, of the reportage book «The Last Sailors» (FFMS) and of a «Sentimental Dictionary of Adultery».

Last updated: May 2024

Journalist, writer and commentator. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Russian History from Moscow State University (Lemonossov), where he went to live in 1977. He then devoted himself to the translation of literary and political works and in 1989 he began to report for TSF, having been the correspondent for the «Publico» newspaper in Moscow. He returned to Portugal in 2015. He is currently a commentator on SIC and SIC News, the «Observador» newspaper and Antena 1 radio. He has written several books, including «Russia and Europe: Part of the Whole», published by FFMS. He received the Order of Merit of the Portuguese Republic in 2013.

Last updated: August 2023

He has been a journalist since 1988 in the fields of the environment, science and data journalism. He is the author of the books "Sobre a Terra", an environmental guide, and "Nós no Mundo", about sustainability.

Last updated: January 2017

He holds a PhD from Florida State University (USA) and is currently associate professor with habilitation and director of the department of Political Science at the School of Economics and Management and Political Science at the University of Minho.
He is a member of the Strategic Council of the National Institute of Administration and author of the essay Portuguese Civil Service, published by the Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos in 2019. He has published over thirty articles in international academic journals and was included in the «World’s Top 2% Scientists 2024» list.

Last updated: June 2025

He is a journalist and researcher with a focus on the intersection of technology, culture and power. Since Portuguese newspapers began to pay attention to the digital, he has been creative director of the «Observador», deputy director of the «Público», director of the «Forum» and columnist in the «Eco».
He is Director of Innovation at Global Media, a group that includes the «Diário de Notícias», TSF and the «Jornal de Notícias».
He currently teaches Innovation and Strategy at Nova University Lisbon.

Photo: © Hugo Amaral

Last updated: September 2023