Profile

Fernando Carvalho Rodrigues graduated in Physics from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (1969) and received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Liverpool (1974). He was an Invited Full Professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico (1986-1996), Full Professor and Director of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at the Universidade Independente and its Pro-Rector for Research (1995-2005), and Coordinator of the Scientific Area of Technologies at the School of Design at IADE – Instituto de Artes Visuais, Design e Marketing (2012-2016), of which he is Professor Emeritus.   He collaborated in the establishment of the University of Beira Interior (UBI) and was successively a member of the Scientific Councils of the Polytechnic Institute of Covilhã, the University Institute of Beira Interior and the UBI, from which he holds an Honorary Doctorate (1995).
He excelled in the fields of optics, optoelectronics, and information theory and led the PoSAT consortium, which launched Portugal’s first satellite in 1993. He has around two hundred international publications and has published seven books in Portugal, the United States, and the Russian Federation, covering topics ranging from laser safety to mathematical combat models and reflections on the future of technology. He is the author of six patents and has supervised 16 PhD students.
He was Director of NATO’s Scientific Program (1999-2012), member of EuroDefense Portugal (1998-2012), Vice-President of the Strategic Council of EMPORDEF-Empresa Portuguesa de Defesa (1997-1999) and the first Portuguese coordinator for the Eureka project (1984-1985). He is a founding member of the Portuguese Physics Society (1976) and a member of various scientific societies and academies in Portugal, the USA, the Russian Federation and internationally. He was awarded the Pfizer Prize (1977) and the Gulbenkian Prize for Science and Technology (1978 and 1982). He received the Albert J. Myer Achievement Award (1996), the Military Order of Santiago da Espada (1992) and the Medal of Scientific Merit (2023) awarded by MCTES.