Portuguese, married, two children. Born at Proença-a-Nova, Portugal, 16th November 1942. Early education was received from Escola Primária nr.32 and Liceu Nacional de Nova Lisboa, Nova Lisboa (now Huambo), Angola.

1962/63-1966/67: Under-graduate student of Electrical Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técni­ca de Lisboa, Portugal. Was awarded the title of Electrical Engineer (Electronics) in 1967.

1968-1972: Post-graduate student at Centre d’Etudes Nucléaires de Grenoble, France: Undertook research on liquid crystals, by NMR techniques, under Professor M. Soutif, Université de Grenoble, and was awarded the “Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies en Spectrometrie Physique” in 1968, and the degree of “Docteur ès Sciences Physiques (doctorat d’Etat)” on 21th September 1972 for a thesis entitled “Contribution à l’étude de la dynamique moleculaire dans les phases nématique et isotrope des cristaux liquides” (Contribution to the study of molecular dynamics in the nematic and isotropic phases of liquid crystals).

1972-1978: Military service (1972-1975). Professor of Applied Mechanics (Engineering) at the Military Academy, Lisbon (1973-1978). Started the first Portuguese research group on liquid crystals (1974) at the Instituto de Física e Matemática, now Centro de Física da Matéria Condensada (a research center of the U. Lisbon). The group developed fairly well, gained international notoriety, and originated various doctoral degrees and many publications. Its activity covers various aspects of the science and technology of polymers and liquid crystals.

1978-present: Professor of Materials Science at the New University of Lisbon, Faculty of Science and Technology: Introduced the study of polymeric and liquid crystalline materials science and technology in the curricula of Materials Engineering and started a new teaching and research team at the Department of Materials Science. Head of the Department of Materials Science (1983-1985). Co-founder and first Director of  the Center for Materials Research (CENIMAT) of the New University of Lisbon (1994-1998). Member of the Coordinating Board of the Scientific Council of the Faculty.

Was awarded the decoration “Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques” by the French Ministry of the Universities (1978.08.10).

Invited Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland (1979). Visiting Research Scientist at the Centre d’Etudes Nucléaires de Grenoble (1980 and 1985), and Invited Professor at the University of Grenoble, France (1986).

Co-founder of the Portuguese Materials Society and its Polymer Materials Section (1981). Secretary-General of the Portuguese Physical Society (1981-1983). Member of the Board of the Ampère Society (European NMR society) and full member of the International Liquid Crystal Society.

Co-organizer of the 1st (1978) and 3rd (1982) national conferences of the Portuguese Physical Society, of the 1st (1983) national meeting of the Portuguese Materials Society, of the 1st (1983) Iberian Symposium on Condensed Matter Physics, and of the 1st (1984) and 2nd (1987) Iberian Schools on Condensed Matter Physics.

Organizer and Chairman of the 8th Specialized Colloque Ampère on “Liquid Crystals and Liquid Crystalline Polymers as Studied by Magnetic Resonance and Related Techniques”, Lisbon, 14-18 September 1987.

Chairman of the International Program Committee of the “European Physical Society – 10th General Conference of the Condensed Matter Division” (1990).

Organizer and Chairman of the “11th European Experimental NMR Conference” (EENC), Lisbon, 14-19 June 1992.

Organizer and Chairman of the “30th Int. Congress Ampère on Magnetic Resonance and Related Phenomena”, Lisbon, 23-28 July 2000.

Organizer and Chairman of the “9th European Conference on Liquid Crystals”, Lisbon, 2-6 July 2007.

Member of the International Advisory Board of the “25th AMPERE Congress on Magnetic Resonance” (1990), etc. and of several international conferences and workshops on liquid crystals, including the 22nd (Jeju, Korea, 2008) and 23rd (Krakow, 2010) “International Liquid Crystal Conference”.

 Member of the Scientific Committees of several international conferences, workshops and summer-schools on liquid crystals, magnetic resonance, rheology, etc., including the 19th (Edinburgh, 2002), 20th (Ljubljana, 2004), 21st (Keystone, 2006), 24th (Mainz, 2012) and 25th (Dublin, 2014) “International Liquid Crystal Conference”, the 10th (Colmar, 2009) and 11th (Maribor, 2011) “European Conference on Liquid Crystals”, and the 6th (Lisbon, 2011) “International Liquid Crystal Elastomer Conference”.

Member of the editorial board of the scientific journal “Liquid Crystals”, edited by Taylor & Francis, London (1998-2003), and “Referee” of twelve other international scientific journals, and a number of national and international panels for R&D projects evaluation.

Responsible and scientific adviser of a number of doctoral dissertations (PhD) in Portugal, France and Switzerland.

Author of more than four hundred articles and communications (over fifty invited lectures) in learned scientific journals and international meetings.