Portugal-US Partnerships 2026 Summit

Caitlin Mueller is the George Macomber Associate Professor in Construction Management at MIT in Architecture and in Civil and Environmental Engineering. She leads the Digital Structures research group, directs the Building Technology program, and serves as Associate Director of the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC) and co-Director of the MIT-HPI AI & Creativity Hub (MHACH). Trained at MIT and Stanford, she joined the MIT faculty in 2014. Since then, she has led research advancing computational design and digital fabrication methods to create innovative, high-performance buildings and structures that support a more sustainable and equitable future. Her work has been recognized through major awards, including the 2021 ACADIA Innovative Research Award of Excellence, the 2022 ACSA Diversity Achievement Award, seven best paper awards, and Architectural Record’s inaugural Innovator of the Year distinction in 2025. She has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers, and her research has been demonstrated in built projects such as the 2022 Sueños con Tierra y Concreto pavilion in Mexico City, multiple installations at the 2025 Venice Biennale, and Janet Echelman's 2025 Remembering the Future sculpture at the MIT Museum. She is also co-founder of two startups, Forma Systems and Pixelframe.

Eduardo André de Sousa Marques is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) and a researcher at the Advanced Joining Processes Unit of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management (INEGI). He obtained his PhD in the area of structural adhesive bonding for aerospace applications at FEUP in 2016. His research activity focuses on mechanical characterisation, numerical modelling and experimental testing of the mechanical behaviour of structural joints, including dissimilar solid-state joints and adhesively bonded joints. His work has led to publication of more than 270 documents, with over 5700 citations and a h-index of 41.

João Paulo Monteiro (PhD) is a researcher at the Institute for Systems and Robotics (ISR Lisboa), Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon. His research focuses on systems engineering and small satellite technology development. He is one of the coordinators of the IST NanosatLab, a multidisciplinary research group developing novel hardware and software solutions for small satellites. He was one of the leaders of the ISTSat-1 project, which resulted in the launch and operations of the first Portuguese university satellite.

Prof. Raul Fangueiro is currently the Pro-Rector for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Knowledge Transfer - University of Minho, Portugal, and Member of the Portuguese Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, appointed by the Portuguese Government. He is Full Professor and Senior Researcher with expertise in advanced materials (nano, smart, composites) and structures (3D, auxetic, multiscale). He is the Mentor and the Head of FIBRENAMICS – Institute of Innovation on Fiber-based Materials and Composites (www.fibrenamics.com), a research and technology organization recognized as a CTI – Center for Technology and Innovation by ANI – Portuguese Agency for Innovation. He has more than 250 published papers in international reputed scientific journals (Google Scholar H factor: 58), 550 conference publications, 36 books and 40 patents, being one of 2% world more influential scientists, (Elsevier e Stanford University). He is the scientific coordinator of several national and international research projects on advanced fibrous and composite materials, mainly for building, defense, architecture and health-care applications. He supervised various (more than 25) PhD and Pos-Doc scientific works and is the chair of AUXDEFENSE – World Conference on Advanced Materials for Defense (4 editions) and ICNF – International Conference on Natural Fibers (7 editions). Raul Fangueiro is the founder of the WANFR – World Association of Natural Fibers Research, member of the editorial board of several leading international scientific journals on composite and fibrous materials, and member of several working groups of the European Defense Agency and NATO. He was the founder of several university spin-off´s, based on scientific and technological achievements and he served as Expert Evaluator for several national and international scientific funding agencies including European Commission, Portuguese Agency for Innovation, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, German Research Fondation, Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency, among others.

Zac Manchester is an Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT where he leads the Robotic Exploration Lab. His research leverages insights from physics, control theory, and optimization to enable autonomous systems that are efficient, agile, and safe. His lab develops algorithms for controlling a wide range of autonomous systems from cars merging onto highways to spacecraft landing on Mars. Zac previously worked at Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and NASA Ames Research Center. He received a NASA Early Career Faculty Award in 2018, a Google Faculty Award in 2020, and an NSF CAREER Award in 2025. He has also served as Principal Investigator of four NASA small-satellite missions.

Zack Cordero is the Edgerton Career Development Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT where he serves as Associate Director of the Gas Turbine Laboratory. He received an SB in physics and a PhD in materials science and engineering from MIT. Prior to joining the MIT faculty, Zack held appointments as a postdoctoral fellow in the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and as an assistant professor in the Materials Science and Nano Engineering department at Rice University. Zack’s research at MIT seeks to enable frontier aviation and space platforms through advanced materials, manfacturing, and structures.