Profile
Luís Francisco Valente de Oliveira is a civil engineer. He graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Porto (FEUP) and obtained his doctorate from the same institution in 1973. He specialized in regional development planning and transport, undertaking further studies in the Hague in 1969 and at Imperial College London in 1971. He became a full professor at FEUP in 1980, teaching spatial planning, transport and regional development. His major works include Esquemas Teóricos e Modelos de Estruturas Espaciais Urbanas (1972), Regionalização (2005) and Os Meus Compatriotas (2021). In 2022, he published a 12-volume memoir entitled Trilhos: Memórias. Por vezes quase um diário, which recounts the most significant moments of his intense and multifaceted professional and political career (https://books.fe.up.pt/index.php/feup/catalog/book/978-972-8961-17-6).
He held prominent roles in public administration, including Director of the Technical Office of the Northern Region Planning Commission (1973–1975) and President of the Northern Region Coordination Commission (1979–1985). He served as Minister of Education and Scientific Research (1978–1979), Minister of Planning and Territorial Administration (1985–1995) and Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing (2002–2003). He played a pivotal role in the early Community Support Frameworks and in advocacy of regionalization. He was President of the Founders’ Council of Casa da Música (2012–2024) and a Board Member of the Serralves Foundation (1998–2000). He was also Chancellor of the Orders of Civil Merit from 2013 to 2016. He is a member of the Academy of Engineering and member of the advisory board of the Portuguese Order of Engineers.
He has received numerous national and international honors, including the Grã-Cruz da Ordem Militar de Sant’Iago da Espada (2017), the Grã-Cruz da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique (1981), the Grã-Cruz da Ordem Nacional do Cruzeiro do Sul (Brazil, 1987) and the Grã-Cruz da Ordem de Honra (Greece). He was made Cavaleiro da Ordem Nacional da Legião de Honra (France, 2016). He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (2013).
