Francisco C. Santos — INESC-ID Artificial Intelligence for People and Society (AIPS) researcher and Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of Instituto Superior Técnico — has been elected as the new vice-president of FCT, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia). Santos joins Madalena Alves — FCT’s new president and Full Professor of Environmental Biotechnology and Bioengineering at Universidade do Minho — in the governing board of FCT.

Before taking on the vice-presidency of FCT, Santos has led an accomplished teaching and research career focused on applying and developing computational tools to understand collective dynamics and decision-making in social and life sciences. Having received his PhD in Computer Science from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Santos was a researcher at the Machine Learning Group of ULB and subsequently Investigador Auxiliar at the Centre for Artificial Intelligence of NOVA. In 2016 Santos was awarded the CGD / University of Lisbon prize in Computer Science and, the following year, the 2017 Young Scientist Award for Socio-Econophysics of the German Physical Society.

Santos will be sworn in as vice-president of FCT in a ceremony attended by Elvira Fortunato, the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, this afternoon.

Photo credit: IST UL.