Manuel Heitor, PhD
Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education
Manuel Heitor was born in Lisbon, in 1958.
He holds a PhD from Imperial College of London in Mechanical Engineering, in 1985, and a post doctorate in California University, in San Diego, in 1986. He pursued his academic career at Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon, where he developped investigation activity in Fluid Mechanics and Experimental Combustion.
He is Professor in Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon, where he heads the Center of Innovation, Technology and Development Policies Studies, IN+ and coordinates PhD’s programs concerning Engineering and Public Policies and Engineering of Conception and Advanced Manufacturing Systems.
He was Secretary of State of Science, Technology and Higher Education between March 2005 and June 2011.
He was Invited Professor at Harvard University, in the United States, in 2011 and 2012.
He was co-Chairman of Instituto Superior Técnico between 1993 and 1998. During the 90’s, he studied politics of science, technology and innovation. In 1998, he founded Center of Innovation, Technology and Development Policies Studies, IN+, at Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon. In 2005, this center was ranked on the Top 50 global centers of research on Management of Technology, by International Association for the Management of Technology.
He is Research Fellow of Texas University, in Austin, at the Institute of Innovation, Creativity and Capital. He founded and coordinated several international conferences related to Technology Policy and Innovation and is co-editor of the Purdue University Press book collection on Science and Technology Policy. In 2002, he was also co-founder of the international network Globelics – the global network for the economics of learning, innovation, and competence building systems.
Recently, he was one of the promotors of the European network step4EU, science, technology, education and policy for Europe, and the International Observatory of Global Politics for the Exploitation of Atlantic Ocean. In July 2015, he promoted the manifesto «Knowledge as Our Common Future».
He was Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education of the XXI Government (2015-2019).
Pedro Rodrigues
Vice-Rector, Research, Innovation and Internationalization, University of Porto
Vice-Rector for Research, Innovation and Internationalization at the University of Porto since June 2018. Associate Professor at the Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute, University of Porto (ICBAS-UP), where he teaches Immunology, Pathology and Parasitology to veterinary, biology and biochemistry students (2nd and 3rd cycle).
Pedro Rodrigues obtained his Ph.D. from University of Wageningen, The Netherlands, in 1996 (project carried out at the Department of Cell Biology and Immunology, Animal Sciences, Wageningen). In 1992 concluded his M.Sc. in Immunology from University of Porto, Portugal (project carried out at the Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Free University of Amsterdam). In 1989 completed is 4-year undergraduate Degree from Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute (ICBAS), University of Porto, Portugal. The final year undergraduate Degree research project was carried out at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Natural Environment Research Council, UK.
