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 Message from the President


The School of Sciences (EC from Escola de Ciências in Portuguese) was founded in 1975 as a fundamental pillar of the University of Minho (UMinho). It currently includes 174 PhD teaching staff, 43 technical, administration and management staff members, more than 130 researchers and nearly 2,800 undergraduate, graduate and students in brief courses.

EC has five fundamental scientific areas for the production of knowledge. Physics explains the laws that govern what we know, Chemistry as everything combines to form what we know, Geology the constitution of the ground we step on and which is the source of life; Biology explains life, a central part of our world, and how it evolves and transforms. On the other hand, “the universe cannot be understood unless we first learn its language”: Mathematics.

The training offer of EC includes 11 undergraduate courses, 13 Masters courses, 11 PhD courses and 11 short courses. The EC also hosts more than 120 research projects, funded through competitive calls, and coordinates or participates in some of the most significant initiatives of interaction with society, such as the European Researchers Night, the International Masterclasses in Particle Physics and the Project Bosch-UMinho. Its professors and researchers lead or participate in leading scientific institutions, such as the International Instrumentation and Particles Laboratory (LIP), the Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), the International Barcode of Life consortium and, at the national level, Collaborative Laboratories in close cooperation with innovative companies. Thus, EC plays a central role in a Complete University, such as UMinho, which invests in the generation, dissemination and application of knowledge, contributing to the socio-economic development of the region and the country. It is therefore with great pride and commitment that I embrace the project of leading the EC Presidency to reinforce its essential role in the UMinho mission.

To strength the EC at UMinho, at the regional, national and international level, the Presidency team proposes: Motivate the EC community for a concerted effort that takes the School to a new level of impact and notoriety; Innovate in organizational processes, educational programs and scientific and technological projects, in close cooperation with other UMinho Schools, with other Portuguese and foreign Universities and companies, as well as with national and international networks and consortia; Strengthen the teaching staff, technicians and researchers, their skills and their quality of life; Renew laboratory spaces and equipment that support a high level scientific activity, as well as pedagogical laboratories, in order to transform the experimental teaching of sciences in an innovative way; and Build strategic multisectoral partnerships within and outside the UMinho network, seeking to reinforce the excellence of undergraduate and graduate education projects and the scientific and technological dimension that has projected EC at national and international level.

In a School open to the world, all scientific and technological, educational, business and social individuals and institutions are welcome in our endeavor to build scientific citizenship that contributes to a more informed and active society in promoting sustainable development. All contributions are welcome!

Braga, May 2021

José Manuel González-Méijome


 The Presidency Team

José Manuel González-Méijome  (1).JPG
President
JOSÉ MANUEL GONZÁLEZ-MÉIJOME graduated in Optics and Optometry at the Univ. of Santiago de Compostela in 1997 with an Extraordinary End of Course Prize from the Ministry of Education and Science. In 2001, he joined UMinho as a Visiting Professor, where he completed his PhD in Sciences in 2007. He is the Coordinator of the Clinical and Experimental Optometry Research Lab (CEORLab) and Director of the PhD Program in Optometry and Vision Sciences. In the last years he was Director of the Dep. of Physics, President of the School os Sciences Council between 2019 and 2021 and Vice President of the School of Sciences between 2013 and 2016. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Optometry and member of the Editorial Committee of the journals BioMed Research International, Journal of Opthalmology and PlosONE. He is a member of the Consejo General de Colegios de Ópticos-Optometristas (CGCOO), founding member of the European Academy of Optometry and Optics, evaluator of the European Council of Optometry and Optics for the European Diploma, Chairman of the Educational Committee of the European Academy of Optometry and Optics, Honorary member of the Galician Society of Clinical Optometry and is one of the Portuguese representatives (Global Ambassadors) of the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society (TFOS). In 2016 he received the International Optometrist Award of the year from Univ. Politécnica de Cataluña and, in 2018, the Scientific Merit Prize awarded by UMinho. Currently participates as UMinho co-responsible  in a project of the Bosch-UMinho partnership and is coordinator of the European network OBERON Initial Training Network financed by the European Commission with 3.9 million euros. He is the author or co-author of more than 180 articles indexed in the ISI Web of Science, made more than 500 communications and is the author of 20 book chapters and editor of 3 books in the field of Optometry and Vision Sciences.

Hernâni Gerós (1).JPG
Vice-President for Outreach and Internationalisation
HERNÂNI VARANDA GERÓS graduated in Biology at the Faculty of Sciences of the UPorto in 1990, where he was a Monitor, having received the award for best student by the Fundação Eng. António de Almeida. In the same year he joined as a Trainee Assistant at UMinho where he obtained his PhD in Sciences (1999), having specialized in microbiology, bioenergetics and metabolism. He is an Associate Professor with Habilitation in the Department of Biology (DB) of the School of Sciences (ECUM) at UMinho since 2012. He was a Professor at UC Davis (USA), under the Fulbrighter program, at the University of Bordeaux (France), at the University of Bologna (Italy) and the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), under the Erasmus program. Member of the Center of Molecular and Environmental Biology (CBMA) where he studies Plant Biology, with a special focus on the vine. Supervisor of more than 20 doctoral and post-doctoral students and dozens of master's students. Author of over 100 publications, including scientific articles, book chapters and internationally published books. IR / Co-IR of dozens of research and international cooperation projects, having raised more than 1.5 M € of competitive financing. He was a member of the management committee of 3 COST Actions. APDF 2006 Scientific Award from the FCT / French Embassy and Best Paper Award (2005) for the best scientific article published in Am. J. Enol. Vitic. He has integrated evaluation panels for scientific projects and scholarships (FCT, Fulbright, ANR-France, DFG-Germany, BARD-USA / Israel, ANCS-Romania and FONCYT-Argentina). Member of the editorial board of PlosOne and Int. J. Mol. Sci. He was Erasmus coordinator of the DB, member of the DB Steering Committee and director of C1 and C2 courses. Coordinated the integration of ECUM in the collaborative laboratories ADVID vineyard and wines and Colab4Food. Course director at UMinho of the Doctoral Agrichains Program (UTAD / UMinho / UPValência / WageningenUR). He was director of the Center for Research and Agro-environmental and Biological Technologies - Polo UMinho (CITAB-UMinho) and was a member of the Executive Committee of CITAB. Director of the Department of Biology from 2018 to 2020. Member of the Scientific Council and School Council of ECUM since 2019. He was a member of the UMinho Senate and union delegate of SNESUP.
Inês Cunha Sousa (6).JPG
Vice-President for Teaching and Pedagogical Innovation
INÊS PEREIRA SILVA CUNHA DE SOUSA graduated in Mathematics (specialty in teaching) in 1999 at UMinho. From 1999 to 2001 taught at the Higher School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo. In 2001, started her post-graduate training in the area of Biostatistics in the United Kingdom, where she held different positions until 2008. Completed her Masters in Biostatistics at Lancaster University (UK) in 2002 and, in 2007, her PhD in Statistics at the same University. In 2007 was Research Assistant (postdoctoral position funded by ESRC-UK) at the School of Health and Medicine at Lancaster University and, in 2008, was Lecturer in the same department. In December 2008 she joined UMinho as an Assistant Professor at the Dep. of Mathematics for Science and Technology at the School of Sciences. From 2009 to 2012 she held the position of Honory Research Fellow at Lancaster University. Since February 2021 she is Associate Professor at the Dep. of Mathematics of the UMinho School of Sciences. She has been responsible for different curricular units in the area of Statistics, at the undergraduate, master's and doctoral level. She was the course director of the Masters in Statistics, from 2010 to 2014, and course director of the Degree in Applied Statistics, from 2016 to 2018. She participated in the creation of a distance education course in the area of Statistics and organized several advanced training courses. She has developed her research activity in the area of joint statistical models for longitudinal and survival data, from 2009 to 2017 at the Center of Mathematics and since 2018 at the Center of Molecular and Environmental Biology. She was responsible researcher for two research projects funded by FCT and integrated six projects as a researcher. She has held several management positions at the UMinho School of Sciences, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Dep. of Mathematics (2014-2016 and 2020-2022) and as a member of the Scientific Council of the School of Sciences (2013-2016 and 2019-2022 ). Since 2019 she has been a member of the Ethics Committee for Research in Life Sciences and Health at UMinho and, in 2020, she was elected president of the Biometrics Section of the Portuguese Statistics Society.

Nuno Castro (14).JPG
Vice-President for Research and Scientific Innovation
NUNO FILIPE DA SILVA FERNANDES DE CASTRO graduated in Physics, with a specialization in Theoretical Physics, in 2000 at the Faculty of Science and Technology of Univ. of Coimbra, having completed a Master's in Physics at the Instituto Superior Técnico in 2004 and a PhD in Physics, in the field of Experimental Physics, at the Faculty of Science and Technology of Univ. of Coimbra in 2008. Between 2008 and 2010 he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Theoretical Physics and Cosmos at Univ. of Granada in Spain. In 2010, he joined the newly formed LIP center in Minho as a Post-Doctoral Researcher, being an Assistant Researcher between 2013 and 2018 under the FCT Researcher program. Between 2014 and 2017 he was an Invited Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the Fac. of Sciences of Univ. of Porto and between 2015 and 2018 he was an Invited Associate Professor at the Dep. of Physics of the UMinho School of Sciences, having taught course units in the field of Particle and Astroparticle Physics at the master's and doctoral level. Since 2017, he has been a member of the LIP Board, coordinating LIP-Minho. Since 2018 he has been Assistant Professor at the Dep. of Physics of the UMinho School of Sciences, and is currently Director of the Master in Physics. At LIP, he is co-responsible for the Advanced Training Group and for the Simulation and Big Data Competence Center. Member of the Executive Committee of the PhD scholarship program PT-CERN, financed by FCT, and the Academic Council of the international network of PhD programs IDPASC. Develops his scientific activity in the field of Particle Physics, being since 2004 member of the ATLAS Collaboration of the European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN). In ATLAS, he coordinated the groups Top Quark Properties and Heavy Quarks, Top and Composite Higgs, and is currently co-coordinator of the LHC EFT WG group at CERN. Since 2020, he has been the Portuguese representative in the Governance working group, set up by the CERN Council. He is a member of the Portuguese Physics Society, where he integrates the coordination of the Particle Physics Division and the Editorial Committee of the Gazeta da Física. He participated in multiple projects financed by FCT, as well as by the European Union, and is currently responsible researcher of the BigDataHEP project and co-responsible researcher of the Portuguese Participation in CERN ATLAS Experience. Between 2018 and 2021, he was a member of the Cost g2net Action Management Committee. He is co-author of more than 1000 articles indexed in the ISI Web of Science, with 38 main articles standing out. He made more than 20 communications at international conferences and seminars.