2021 Annual Conference – Speakers

Ana Mena

Ana Mena is the Innovation and Education Coordinator of the MIT Portugal Program (MPP) in Portugal, since June 2021. She has a vast experience as professional at the interface of science and is passionate about exchanging knowledge with all citizens and contributing to a more advanced society.

Before coming to MPP, Ana Mena coordinated projects and teams at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science (IGC) for more than 8 years, first as Head of the Science Communication and Outreach Unit and lately as Head of the Public Engagment Unit. During this period, she was responsible for the institutional communication and press office of IGC for 6 years, and coordinated several educational and science communication projects, from teachers training and tailored science activities for students, to the production of educational resources and science and art projects. She has organized more than 20 public events for different audiences and stakeholders. Her work in science communication received awards from “Casa das Ciências” (Portugal), “Ciencia en Acción” (Spain) and “Acesso Cultura” (Portugal).

Also, Ana Mena was a founding member of the IGC Ethics Committee being involved in the establishment of internal procedures of the Committee.

Ana Mena holds a 5-year undergraduate degree (Licenciatura) in Microbiology and Genetics from Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon (2000), and a PhD in Biology from University NOVA Lisbon (2008).

Ana Pais | Speaker

Ana Pais obtained her master’s degree in mechanical engineering by FEUP in 2020 and now attends the doctoral programme in mechanical engineering by FEUP.

André de Aragão Azevedo

André de Aragão Azevedo graduated in Law by the University of Lisbon. 
He travelled to Macau in 1995 where he worked as a Lawyer and Legal Adviser, supporting the transition of Macau from Portuguese to Chinese Administration
process. In 2005, when returned to Portugal, André Azevedo worked in the National Parliament, as advisor to the Constitutional Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Ethics Commissions.
Between 2008 and 2011, he joined the Ministry of Health has the Chief of Staff of the Secretary of State for Health.

In 2012, André Azevedo he joined Microsoft Portugal, with commercial management functions in the Public Sector and, in 2017, he became an administrator with the responsibility of promoting the use of technology as a factor for transforming national companies and organizations. He was in charge of coordinating the technological training plan for the ecosystem of Startups and research centres based on cloud services, as well as the digital training of citizens and professionals throughout their life cycle. 

Since 2019, he is Secretary of State for Digital Transition, in the Ministry led by Pedro Siza Vieira, with the main challenge of digitizing the Portuguese economy.
In March 2020, even before the Covid19 Pandemic crisis, he presented the Action Plan for Digital Transition, a document focused on the objectives outlined for the legislature, with 12 emblematic measures that aim to project the country in the world without leaving anyone behind, through the digital empowerment of people, the digital transformation of companies and the digitalization of the State.

| Photo: Diana Tinoco |

Catarina Selada

Catarina Selada is Head of Policy at CEiiA – Centre for Engineering and Development. She has been working in several European and Portuguese projects on smart and sustainable cities, namely the Portuguese Smart Cities Network, the Living Lab Matosinhos and the AYR sustainability platform. She was awarded with the prize “Smart Cities Personality of the Year 2016” by the Strategic Committee of AIP – Portuguese Industrial Association. She received a degree in Economics and a master’s degree in Science and Technology Management from the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal. She has a post-graduation certificate in Governance, Public Policies and Innovation by the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

Daniela Couto

Daniela Couto is a Partner with BGV (BioGeneration Ventures). She joined BGV in 2015 and serves on the board of four biotechnology companies. Daniela served as Managing Director of cardiovascular-focused Staten Biotech, an antibody company that is now collaborating with Novo Nordisk. Previously, she was co-founder and CEO at Cell2B, a life sciences company dedicated to treating immune and inflammatory diseases.

Daniela holds a M.Sc. degree with honors in Biomedical Engineering from Universidade do Minho and a PhD degree with the highest honors in Bioengineering from Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) – Technical University of Lisbon (MIT-Portugal Program).

Doug Hart

Professor Douglas P. Hart is a principal investigator in the Hatsopoulos Microfluids Laboratory. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical/Astronautical engineering from the University of Illinois, his master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

He worked as a research engineer for Electromagnetic Launch Research, Inc. (now Kaman Electromagnetics Corp. a subsidiary of Kaman Corp.) on satellite propulsion and as a senior systems engineer for Northrop Corp. (now Northrop Grumman Corp.) on unmanned drones before joining the faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT in 1993.

Professor Hart teaches and conducts research in the areas of fluid mechanics, design, and instrumentation. He’s also an inventor, cofounder, and board member of three venture-funded companies that include Brontes Technologies, Inc., an MIT Deshpande Center spinout acquired by 3M in 2006, and Lantos Technologies, an MIT Deshpande Center spinout founded in September of 2011. Professor Hart has a long history of successful inventions from within and outside academia. He is an advisor for numerous companies and professional organizations and he has received a number of awards for his research and teaching that include the Robert T. Knapp Award for his work in the area of flow diagnostics, the Keenan Award for Innovation in Education, and the Junior Bose Award for Excellence in Teaching. His current interests include image processing and optical diagnostics relating to health and the environment.

José Paulo Esperança

José Paulo Esperança is a full professor of Finance and a former Pro-Rector for International Relations and Entrepreneurship at ISCTE-IUL, Portugal. He was the Dean of ISCTE Business School between April 2015 and April 2019, resigning this position to become Vice-president of FCT.
He has a degree in Business Organization and Management by ISCTE-IUL and got is MBA by the University of Lisbon.

He got a PhD in economics from the European University Institute, Florence on “The Investment Decision by Service Multinationals” and has published in journals such as Applied Financial Economics, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Management Research, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Corporate Governance and Management International Review. His research interests include entrepreneurship and small business financing, corporate governance and the impact of language commonality in international business. He was the Chairman of AUDAX-ISCTE, an associated center focused on entrepreneurship and family business. He also co-founded Building Global Innovators (BGI), a technology transfer accelerator in partnership with MIT Portugal. He was the Portuguese Delegate for the SME Instrument of the Horizon’s 2020 Program of the European Commission and a member of the board of CPADA, the Portuguese Federation of Environmental Associations.

(Source: FCT)

José Ferraz-Caetano

José Ferraz-Caetano is a PhD Student on Sustainable Chemistry on the MIT Portugal Program. He has a BSc and a MSc in Chemistry, by the Faculty of Sciences of University of Porto.
During his education, he specialized in Physical and Medicinal Chemistry, namely in development of new catalytic solutions in the Pharmaceutical field.
His experience includes full Medical Basic formation from Faculty of Medicine of University of Lisbon, an international internship as an Invited Researcher at University of Vigo (Team NanoTech), expertise in production line support for Pharmaceutical companies (Hovione S.A.) and was a member of the CIQUP – Centro de Investigação em Química da Universidade do Porto, on the Physical Analytical Chemistry & Electrochemistry Division. Currently, he is a member of REQUIMTE LAQV – Porto, where he developed physical and analytical methods towards the design of novel medicinal bioactive substances.
As of today, José is working on the QUIMAT division on applied Machine Learning methods to develop new catalysts towards green process chemistry. José also conducts research in History of Science and Science Education, including organization and development of several scientific communication activities.

Joana Mendonça

Joana Mendonça is President at ANI – Agência Nacional de Inovação, since may 2021. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering and Management at Instituto Superior Técnico, where she teaches courses on Entrepreneurship, Engineering Economics, and Innovation Management and Design Thinking. She was a member of the Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research, IN +, where she leads the Laboratory of Technology Management and Policy.

She was the co-coordinator of the Master’s program in Engineering and Management of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MEGIE) and of the Doctoral program in Engineering and Public Policy.

She has been part of the scientific direction of the international partnership Carnegie Mellon Portugal since 2014 and has been a scientific coordinator at CEiiA ( Center of Engineering and Product Development) since 2018.

During 2016, she was an assistant to the Minister for Economy for issues related to Innovation, Technology and Science; and between 2010 and 2012, she was a Deputy Director at the Directorate for Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC). In 2009-2010, she was an assistant to the Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education. Joana obtained her PhD in Engineering and Industrial Management at IST, University of Lisbon, in 2009. In 2008, she was an invited researcher at ZEW (Centre for European Economic Research). Joana holds a Masters degree in Engineering Policy and Management of Technology, and obtained her Diploma in Chemistry from Lisbon University.

Joana Rafael

Joana Rafael is a co-founder at Sensei (www.sensei.tech) – a Lisbon based computer vision company with a mission to make shopping seamless, pleasant, and more efficient with AI powered Autonomous Stores. Sensei opened in May 2021 the first autonomous store in Europe opened to the public in partnership with a retailer.

With in-depth knowledge of retail operations, she serves as Chief Operating Officer at Sensei, being responsible for operations, business development and partnerships, funding, people/HR and legal.

She serves as Vice-President at AIP – Portuguese Industry Association / Chamber of Commerce and Industry and as an Advisory Board member of CIONET, the largest organization of IT executives worldwide.

She has worked and studied in the USA (Boston), Germany, Italy and Portugal. Joana was a doctoral researcher at MIT Portugal Sustainable Energy Systems program between 2012-2014 , and earned an Executive Master/DFA from IST in 2013. Joana completed a graduate certificate at Harvard University in Management and Sustainability in Cambridge, USA and in 2009 graduated from Technical University of Lisbon in Architecture. Joana received the Women Entrepreneurship Award (2019) by Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics – Center for Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the prize of best startup founded by a Women by Novabase/PWIT in 2021.

Sensei is a Techstars alumni who raised 7 million USD in VC funding and the company has won several prizes and awards such as European Data Incubator winner, Prémio Empreendedor XXI BPI CaixaBank 2020 among other and has been named one of the ‘Hottest European Startups’ by WIRED magazine.

José Pedro Rodrigues

José Pedro Rodrigues,  is the Councilor for Civil Protection, Mobility, and Transport of the Municipality of Matosinhos. He’s graduated in Social Communication from the University of Minho. 
His professional career includes the Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias and collaborations with the Porto daily newspaper Primeiro de Janeiro and Rádio Clube de Matosinhos. Additionally, he’s Auditor of the National Defense Course 2020 at the National Defense Institute

Manuel Heitor

Manuel Ramalho Eanes

Manuel Ramalho Eanes is Executive Board Member of NOS SGPS being responsible for the areas directed at the Portuguese business segment. Manuel leads the ICT, IoT and Cloud services offering, positioning the company at the forefront of business transformation exponentiated by 5g technology. Manuel is also leading the mission to innovate in the telecommunications sector, helping to define the future of mobile and fixed networks in Portugal.

Before joining NOS, Manuel served as Executive Board Member of Optimus – Comunicações, SA with responsibility over the areas of Corporates and Operators and headed at Optimus the areas of Residential Fixed Business, Central Marketing and Data Services, Personal Sales, Small Businesses and Business Development. Manuel Ramalho Eanes started his career at McKinsey & Co.

Manuel Ramalho Eanes holds a Degree in Business Management by the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Lisboa) and an MBA by INSEAD.

Michael Leskiw

Michael Leskiw is an Alliance Manager in MIT’s new Office of Strategic Alliances & Technology Transfer (OSATT), which is MIT’s conduit for faculty seeking to engage with corporations and foreign governments. OSATT provides a faculty-centric process to catalyze, formalize, and facilitate these important relationships. Michael’s portfolio is primarily large engagements with foreign governments and multi-national corporations.

Michael has been at MIT since 2004 and previously worked in MIT’s sponsored programs office, and prior to that on the operational side ramping up MIT’s largest international research center (based in Singapore) and a collaborative project helping to start a new university in Moscow.  Michael is a licensed attorney in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Miguel Bello

Miguel Belló is CEO of the Atlantic International Research Centre (AIR Centre), international organization to develop scientific and technological applications in the Atlantic region. Miguel has been entrepreneur in the European Space sector involved in the management of International Space Programs and Institutions.

Miguel was founder and CEO of all companies in DEIMOS Group in Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom, Romania and Italy. He is expert in Space Systems Operations, Space System Engineering, Earth Observation systems and applications, Interplanetary Mission Design, Launcher Trajectory Optimization and Space Debris.

Miguel holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the Flugmechanik Institut, Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik, Technische Universität Braunschweig (Germany), in 1993, a M.S. Degree in Aeronautical Engineering, at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, in 1983, with end of Studies Honour Award and a General Management Programme (MBA), in 2000-2001, at IESE (Madrid).

Miguel is Full Member for Section 2 (Engineering Sciences) of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), Member of the Astrodynamics Committee of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), Chairman of the Mission and Constellation Design Session of the IAC Astrodynamics Symposium. Miguel was Member of the European Space Agency Space Debris Advisory Group (SDAG) and Invited Professor on Space Debris Environment at the Universidad Politécnica in Madrid and Celestial Mechanics at La Sapienza University in Rome.

Miguel Carvalho

Miguel is the CEO and co-founder of Watt-IS, a data analytics company focused on applying AI and machine learning algorithms to innovative energy related solutions, targeting energy utilities and Distribution System Operators. Miguel has 12+ years of experience in areas related with renewable energy and energy efficiency and prior to Watt-IS he was the Executive Director of the MIT Portugal Program Coordination Office in Portugal. Miguel graduated in computer engineering from IST and holds an MSc on Technology Management from IST and an MBA from AESE/IESE Business School.”

Nazanin Azimi Fereidani

Nazanin Azimi Fereidani is a first year Ph.D. student in Energy and Sustainability at university of Coimbra. She is a research member at Association for the Development of Industrial Aerodynamics (ADAI). Her research interests center around the climate change and sustainability. With a MA in Architecture, her current work focuses on the impacts of climate change on the thermal performance of buildings, particularly in the Middle East. She has recently published a paper about the impact of global warming on the energy consumption of buildings in this region in which possible adaptation and mitigation strategies for reduction of buildings’ energy demand have been identified and introduced

Paulo Ferrão

Pedro Arezes

Since 2016, Pedro Arezes has been a National Director of the MIT Portugal Program. Since 2013, Pedro has been a Full Professor (Professor Catedrático) on Human Factors Engineering at the School of Engineering of the University of Minho, and a visiting fellow at MIT and Harvard University, both in the USA. Since 2013, he is also an invited full Professor at the University of Porto (Engineering Faculty). In 2010/2011, he worked as an invited researcher at TU Delft (Safety Science group), in the Netherlands.

Having a background on Industrial Engineering, he holds a PhD in the same domain from the UMinho, where he also coordinates, since 2003, the Ergonomics & Human Factors research group,being also the Director of the Ergonomics Laboratory and Program Director of the PhD Program on Industrial and Systems Engineering. He has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, authored and edited more than 50 Books and book chapters, and authored more than 300 peer-reviewed papers published in international conference proceedings. During his academic career he has been a member and/or PI of more than 30 international and national competitive funded research projects across several domains, with a special emphasis to the domains of Ergonomics and Human Factors, and of Occupational Safety and Hygiene. He has been collaborating (as a member of the editorial board, guest editor and/or reviewer) with more than 20 recognized international scientific journals.

R. John Hansman

R. John Hansman is the MIT Portugal Program Director at MIT. He’s the T. Wilson Professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics MIT, where he is the Director of the MIT International Center for Air Transportation. 

He conducts research in the application of information technology in operational aerospace systems.  Dr. Hansman holds 6 patents and has authored over 250 technical publications. He has over 6000 hours of pilot-in-command time in airplanes, helicopters, and sailplanes including meteorological, production, and engineering flight test experience. 

Professor Hansman chairs the US Federal Aviation Administration Research Engineering & Development Advisory Committee (REDAC) as well as other national and international advisory committees.

He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), is a Fellow of the AIAA and has received numerous awards including the AIAA Dryden Lectureship in Aeronautics Research, the ATCA Kriske Air Traffic Award, Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, a Laurel from Aviation Week & Space Technology, and the FAA Excellence in Aviation Award.

Rita Pombo

Rita Pombo holds a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering, with specialisation in Coastal and Port Engineering, and has 5 years of professional experience in the field of expertise. She worked, in collaboration with the Portuguese National Laboratory for Civil Engineering, on a study for the construction of a detached submerged breakwater to be installed in the Portuguese coast to reduce coastal erosion and protect against wave overtopping, favouring the wave conditions for surfing. During this project she participated in site campaigns by boat to collect local hydrodynamic and sedimentological data. Later, she worked for the Administration System of the Littoral Resource (SIARL), managed by the Portuguese Environment Agency, in the vulnerability prediction model which collects, processes and uploads data into SIARL to expand knowledge on the Portuguese coastline and to support adaptation strategies for installed risks in climate change scenarios. She also provided consultancy services to R5 Marine Solutions company and the Municipality of Loulé, within the scope of the preliminary study of alternative solutions for restructuring the Quarteira groin field (Algarve, Portugal), through the University of Aveiro. The last project she was involved in was named COAST4US and it aimed to validate a cost-benefit analysis software for coastal interventions as a reference management tool with worldwide application. Throughout her professional career, she participated in international conferences and performed further training abroad, namely at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Germany) and the Technische Universität Wien (Austria). Currently, she is initiating the Doctorate in Civil Engineering to investigate the feasibility of the deepwater development of the Port of Leixões, under a PhD Scholarship granted by MIT Portugal Program.

Rui Costa

Rui A. Costa, CEO and Co-Founder of Ubiwhere, has an extensive academic curriculum, with a Degree in Computer Engineering and Telematics and a Degree in Applied Mathematics and Computation (both from the University of Aveiro), an MBA in Management (from Porto Business School, University of Porto) and a Master’s Degree in Wireless Networks (by the Queen Mary College, University of London).
As Co-Founder of Ubiwhere, Rui has been involved in diverse R&D projects, mostly undertaking management responsibilities, namely in European projects (FP5, FP6, FP7 and H2020 framework programmes) for Smart Cities and Future Internet. Additionally, he is also a manager in ten more high-tech companies, which gives him numerous interdisciplinary abilities. Rui has been Network Architect in PT Inovação, Researcher in IEETA and IT, and Professor at the University of Aveiro.

Sarah Williams

Sarah Williams is currently an Associate Professor of Technology and Urban Planning. She also is Director of the Civic Data Design Lab at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. The Civic Data Design Lab works with data, maps, and mobile technologies to develop interactive design and communication strategies that expose urban policy issues to broader audiences.

Trained as a Geographer (Clark University), Landscape Architect (University of Pennsylvania), and Urban Planner (MIT), Williams’s work combines geographic analysis and design. Williams is most well known for her work as part of the Million Dollar Blocks team which highlighted the cost of incarceration, Digital Matatus which developed the first data set on a informal transit system searchable in Google Maps, and a more a recent project that uses social media data to understand housing vacancy and Ghost Cities in China.

Her design work has been widely exhibited including work in the Guggenheim, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City. Before coming to MIT, Williams was Co-Director of the Spatial Information Design Lab at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). Williams has won numerous awards including being named top 25 planners in the technology and 2012 Game Changer by Metropolis Magazine. Her work is currently on view in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Seoul Biennale Cities Exhibition in Korea.

| Source : Civic Data Design Lab |

Shannon Kobs

Dr. Shannon Kobs Nawotniak is an associate professor of volcanology at Idaho State University. A graduate of Michigan Technological University (BS Geology) and the University at Buffalo (PhD Geology), she uses fieldwork, computational modeling, and laboratory analyses to study the relationships between volcanic processes and their products. She is particularly interested in planetary exploration problems, working with interdisciplinary teams to better understand Mars, the Moon, and other rocky bodies in the solar system.

She was the Deputy PI for the BASALT (Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains) research project, which included high-fidelity simulations of human exploration on Mars using volcanic terrains in Idaho and Hawaii. She was one of the volcanology co-leads for the FINESSE (Field INvestigations to Enable Solar system Science and Exploration) project using Idaho volcanoes as lunar analogs and served as the geology lead for the SUBSEA (Systematic Underwater Biogeochemical Science and Exploration Analog) project using hydrothermal systems on the Pacific seafloor as an analog for Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, among other NASA-funded projects.

She has received the Outstanding Researcher Award from ISU and has twice been recognized by NASA Ames Research Center for teams she has helped to lead. 

Susana Costa

Susana Costa is the Research and Industry Liaison Coordinator at the MIT Portugal Program. Susana still collaborates with the Production and Systems Department of the University of Minho’s School of Engineering as an Invited Assistant Professor, and with the Ergonomics and Human Factors Laboratory at the Centro ALGORITMI in the University of Minho (Portugal), within the “Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM)” research line. Susana Costa holds a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Minho and a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the same teaching institution.

She is an Occupational Safety and Hygiene Specialist since 2010 and a certified internal auditor of Integrated Management Systems for Quality, Environment and Safety since 2015.

Susana previously integrated the INNOVCAR and the EasyRide projects, resulting from a partnership between the University of Minho and Bosch. She has collaborated with several institutions and companies in the scope of professional training and consulting in Human Factors and Ergonomics and Occupational Safety and Hygiene.

She integrates the International Scientific Committee of the Occupational Safety and Hygiene (SHO) Symposium since 2016, and is a Member of the Advisory Board of the Conference on Safety Management and Human factors (SMHF) since 2017, and a member of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) Technical Program Committee since 2020.

She is an author and reviewer of several articles in magazines, symposia and conferences in Occupational Safety, Hygiene and Ergonomics, and has participated in several PhD and Master’s defences as a jury member.

Willian Weber de Melo

Willian Weber de Melo is a graduated Civil engineer from the Federal University of Santa Maria (Brazil). He has a postgraduate in Sustainable Cities from the University of Algarve and a Master in Urban Engineering from the University of Minho. Currently, he’s a PhD student in Civil Engineering at the University of Minho. 

Zita Martins

Zita Martins is an Astrobiologist, an Associate Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST, Portugal), and a Co-Director of the MIT Portugal Program. She works in the field of Astrobiology and Cosmochemistry, and her research interests include the detection of bio-signatures in space missions, and the potential contribution of organic compounds present in meteorites and comets to the origin of life on Earth.

She has a 5-year undergraduate degree (Licenciatura) in Chemistry from IST (Portugal, 2002) and a PhD in Astrobiology from Leiden University (The Netherlands, 2007). She was an Invited Scientist at NASA Goddard (2005 and 2006), and an Invited Professor at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis (France) (2012). In 2009 she was awarded a Royal Society Research Fellowship worth 1 Million British Pounds, and she was a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Imperial College London (UK) until end of 2017. Since January 2018 she is an Associate Professor at IST (Portugal).

Zita Martins has been actively involved in space research, including participation in several space missions. From 2007 to 2009 she worked on the Urey Mars Organic and Oxidant detector, which was previously listed to fly to Mars on the ExoMars mission. She is a Co-Investigator of two European Space Agency (ESA) space missions (OREOcube and EXOcube), which will be installed in the International Space Station. She is also a Member of the Portuguese Consortium of the ARIEL space mission from ESA, and a Member of the “Organic macromolecules” sub-team of the Japanese space mission Hayabusa2 from JAXA.

Simão Soares

Simão Soares is CEO and co-founder of SilicoLife, a company combining AI and biology for the design of cell factories and novel pathways for the sustainable production of chemicals. MSc Bioinformatics (UMinho), postgraduate in management from NOVA School of Business and Economics and trained in Blue Ocean Strategy at INSEAD. He is also President of P-BIO, Portuguese Bioindustry Association, a Global Shaper Alumni, an initiative of the World Economic Forum, and a Climate Reality Leader. Simão was elected at the end of 2020 The Most Innovative Bioeconomy CEO by the readers of Il Bioeconomista.