Profile

MD, he followed a laboratory specialty (pathological anatomy) influenced by the research carried out as a student with electron microscopy. He joined the Portuguese Institute of Oncology in Lisbon where he headed the Department of Morphological Pathology and created a team concentrating care, teaching and research activities. At the Faculty of Medical Sciences he acquired Doctor and “”Agregado”” degrees. He held scientific positions in international oncology and pathology organizations and developed research mainly in breast and salivary gland tumors, having collaborated in WHO editions for the international classification of these neoplasms.
He was appointed as full Professor of Pathology at the Lisbon Medical School and he was also in charge of Legal Medicine, Medical Law and Bioethics, having retired in 2012.
He served as chair of several public committees, in the areas of health (Reference Clinical Centers of the Ministry of Health), science (Scientific Council for Health and Life Sciences of the FCT) and higher education (accreditation of national and foreign medical schools). He presided over scientific societies (Pathological Anatomy, Senology, Medical Sciences)
He was Director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2009.19), where he promoted several initiatives in the field of organization and innovation in health and human development. He chaired the National Ethics Council for Life Sciences, an advisory body based in the Assembly of the Republic. He is Academic Emeritus of the National Academy of Medicine of Portugal and corresponding member of the Royal National Academy of Medicine of Spain. He received gold merit medals from the Medical Association and the Ministry of Health.