Profile

Lucas F. M. da Silva is a Full Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP). He obtained his PhD in 2004 from the University of Bristol, in the United Kingdom, in the field of structural adhesive bonding of composites, and received his Habilitation (Agregação) from FEUP in 2011. He is the founder and director of the Advanced Joining Processes Unit at INEGI, coordinating a team of more than forty researchers and around forty national and international projects.

His research focuses on adhesive bonding, extending to joining by plastic deformation, welding, and the development of innovative testing equipment. He maintains strong cooperation with industry, collaborating with companies such as Aston Martin, Sika, Arcelor Mittal, Infineon and Bosch, and is committed to engineering education, having created an online platform and more than one hundred educational videos. He also promotes social causes, notably through his role in founding the Beatriz Ângelo association, dedicated to the advancement of women in STEAM fields.

He is the author or co-author of some fifty books and seventy book chapters, including the Handbook of Adhesion Technology, and has close to 750 publications and an h-index near 80. He is Editor-in-Chief of seven scientific journals, including The Journal of Adhesion, and the founder of several international conferences in the fields of adhesion, materials and education. Among his distinctions are the FEUP Scientific Excellence Awards (2013 and 2018), the Pedagogical Excellence Award (2023) and the University of Porto Award for Excellence in Scientific Research (2026). He ranks among the most cited scientists in the world and the leading experts in adhesion science.