UT Austin Portugal Newsletter | Everything starts with a seed


*Before you dive into the holiday season, get to know what the Program has been up to!* We headed into 2022, glad to be celebrating 15 years of outstanding achievements with our community: the seeds we had planted were bearing fruits. As we wrap the year up, we picked this edition to show our readers how we celebrated the Program’s legacy at the Annual Conference and how we are preparing the ground for the Program to continue feeding science-based knowledge into society and helping our projects progress. We also share inspiring stories from some of our community members and how small decisions or apparently unimportant events in the past can be game-changing. John Ekerdt, Principal Investigator of the Program at UT Austin since 2018, signs our editorial. Because a good harvest requires careful planning, Ekerdt looks into the future and explains why Portugal and Texas together can contribute to a cleaner and sustainable energy for the benefit of new generations. Reflecting Back and Projecting Forward This October the UT Austin Portugal Annual Conference reflected on the progress and impact this collaboration has had on education, research and innovation, and the conference looked to a clean energy and sustainable future. Fitting themes as we position to embark on the next phase of our partnership in the years ahead. The UT Austin Portugal Program has worked from the beginning in partnership with the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology (FCT) and the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education to address pressing societal problems. There can be little doubt achieving energy security that is clean and sustainable is one of these problems, and it is best tackled in an international setting that leverages and amplifies the physical and natural assets, and intellectual capital of the partners.Both partners have much in common – an abundance of sunshine and wind, an independent energy grid, capacity to store energy to overcome the intermittency of renewable sources, markets for green hydrogen, and a commitment to transition our economies and industries from a fossil fuel dependence. The Azores and Madeira islands and the University of Texas lands can afford testbeds for innovative solutions. Importantly, the Portuguese Universities and Institutes and the University of Texas at Austin have the subject matter experts to discover and integrate the technologies needed in a clean energy future and a track record of working with translation partners to implement them. Doing this will build upon the core elements of the Program: advanced computing, nanotechnology, space-earth interactions and technology commercialization. The nature of the work will also train and prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers to lead this clean and sustainable energy future. I write this as the month of January, named for Janus – the Roman deity for beginnings and transitions – is approaching. So too is the need to address, embrace and lead in the clean and sustainable energy future. John Ekerdt, Principal Investigator of the UT Austin Portugal Program at UT Austin and Member of the Board of Directors

Before you dive into the holiday season, get to know what the Program has been up to! We headed into 2022, glad to be celebrating 15 years of outstanding achievements with our community: the seeds we had planted were bearing fruits. As we wrap the year up, we picked this edition to show our readers how we celebrated the Program’s legacy at the Annual Conference and how we are preparing the ground for the Program to continue feeding science-based knowledge into society and helping our projects progress. We also share inspiring stories from some of our community members and how small decisions or apparently unimportant events in the past can be game-changing. John Ekerdt, Principal Investigator of the Program at UT Austin since 2018, signs our editorial. Because a good harvest requires careful planning, Ekerdt looks into the future and explains why Portugal and Texas together can contribute to a cleaner and sustainable energy for the benefit of new generations. Reflecting Back and Projecting Forward This October the UT Austin Portugal Annual Conference reflected on the progress and impact this collaboration has had on education, research and innovation, and the conference looked to a clean energy and sustainable future. Fitting themes as we position to embark on the next phase of our partnership in the years ahead. The UT Austin Portugal Program has worked from the beginning in partnership with the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology (FCT) and the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education to address pressing societal problems. There can be little doubt achieving energy security that is clean and sustainable is one of these problems, and it is best tackled in an international setting that leverages and amplifies the physical and natural assets, and intellectual capital of the partners.Both partners have much in common – an abundance of sunshine and wind, an independent energy grid, capacity to store energy to overcome the intermittency of renewable sources, markets for green hydrogen, and a commitment to transition our economies and industries from a fossil fuel dependence. The Azores and Madeira islands and the University of Texas lands can afford testbeds for innovative solutions. Importantly, the Portuguese Universities and Institutes and the University of Texas at Austin have the subject matter experts to discover and integrate the technologies needed in a clean energy future and a track record of working with translation partners to implement them. Doing this will build upon the core elements of the Program: advanced computing, nanotechnology, space-earth interactions and technology commercialization. The nature of the work will also train and prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers to lead this clean and sustainable energy future. I write this as the month of January, named for Janus – the Roman deity for beginnings and transitions – is approaching. So too is the need to address, embrace and lead in the clean and sustainable energy future. John Ekerdt, Principal Investigator of the UT Austin Portugal Program at UT Austin and Member of the Board of Directors

Upcoming Events and Opportunities


15 years of collaborations celebrated at the Annual Conference 2022 The joint venture between Portugal and The University of Texas at Austin was celebrated at our Annual Conference on October 19 at the Porto Cruise Terminal. Almost one hundred participants had the opportunity to learn from a group of top-notch speakers about International Science & Technology Partnerships as platforms for Science Diplomacy, the Program’s entrepreneurship and technology commercialization legacy, its disruptive contributions to the biomedical field and also its role in society’s energy transition.

15 years of collaborations celebrated at the Annual Conference 2022 The joint venture between Portugal and The University of Texas at Austin was celebrated at our Annual Conference on October 19 at the Porto Cruise Terminal. Almost one hundred participants had the opportunity to learn from a group of top-notch speakers about International Science & Technology Partnerships as platforms for Science Diplomacy, the Program’s entrepreneurship and technology commercialization legacy, its disruptive contributions to the biomedical field and also its role in society’s energy transition.

Get to know our community...

Sometimes, the choices we think are slight turn out to be the most impactful. With courage and determination, these seeds that we plant sprout into remarkable careers such as the ones of Oliver Jäkel and Nuno Castro. Although with similar backgrounds, they paved different but equally impressive paths.

Oliver Jäkel, a member of the External Review Committee, is the Head of the Division of Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology at the German Cancer Research Center. Learn more about how he applies his particle physics knowledge to Medical Physics and his perspective on international collaborations to tackle cancer diseases.

When Oliver Jäkel finished his PhD in theoretical particle physics, he had the ambition to exchange theory for a more practical approach in order to have a direct impact on society. A pilot project to treat cancer patients with light ions fascinated Oliver, which made his dream to be a part of it. Through persistence, he made it to the Medical Physics Team of the German Cancer Research Center, where Oliver still works until this day. Read More.

For this edition, we also invited Nuno Castro, the Program's Area Director for Advanced Computing. Nuno is the Vice-President for Research and Scientific Innovation of the School of Sciences of the University of Minho, Professor of Physics, Researcher at the Portuguese Laboratory for Experimental Particle Physics and an active member of the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN. Learn more about his journey and his thoughts on the future of Advanced Computing in Portugal.

The first time he entered a research lab was by his grandfather’s hand, and Nuno was convinced he would choose chemistry until the last year of high school. However, Nuno’s fascination with the subatomic structure made him switch to physics. His choice led him to study particle physics and learn computational skills. Today, Nuno has an extensive and successful career in the field, which you will get to learn more about. Read More.

On the most recent episode of Cross Talks...


In our eighth episode, we talked with Arlindo Marques (Product Manager of the Aerospace Department at Efacec), Clara Lázaro (Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Science of the University of Porto & Interdisciplinary Center of Marine and Environmental Research), Paulo Figueiredo (Data Scientist at Center of Engineering and Product Development), and Brandon A. Jones (Assistant Professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at UT Austin) about the UT Austin Portugal 2019 Strategic Research Project MAGAL Constellation. Together, they explained why one of the largest consortia of the 2019 SRP Call is developing a constellation of small satellites to study ocean level variations and climate change.Follow us on this journey to find out what a constellation of satellites is and how helpful it can be to study the impacts of climate change on our oceans.

In our eighth episode, we talked with Arlindo Marques (Product Manager of the Aerospace Department at Efacec), Clara Lázaro (Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Science of the University of Porto & Interdisciplinary Center of Marine and Environmental Research), Paulo Figueiredo (Data Scientist at Center of Engineering and Product Development), and Brandon A. Jones (Assistant Professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at UT Austin) about the UT Austin Portugal 2019 Strategic Research Project MAGAL Constellation. Together, they explained why one of the largest consortia of the 2019 SRP Call is developing a constellation of small satellites to study ocean level variations and climate change.Follow us on this journey to find out what a constellation of satellites is and how helpful it can be to study the impacts of climate change on our oceans.

(Re)view the best moments of this year's Annual Conference

Watch the video of our latest webinar

The UT Austin Portugal Program team wishes you a joyful holiday season surrounded by the people you cherish the most. Take this opportunity to recharge and get ready for another year filled with science, technology and innovation.

Happy holidays!

UT Austin Portugal and its community in the Media

[ML@GridEdge] Soares, A., Goncalves, G., & Moura, P. (2022).Management of Energy Storage in Transactive Energy Communities. In 2022 International Conference on Smart Energy Systems and Technologies (SEST). IEEE.
[ML@GridEdge] Mendes, N., Moura, P., Mendes, J., Salles, R., & Mohammadi, J. (2022).Federated Learning Enabled Prediction of Energy Consumption in Transactive Energy Communities. In 2022 IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference Europe (ISGT-Europe). IEEE.
[LubEnergy] Fontes, M. A., Serra, R. G. H., Fernandes, F. D., Cavaleiro Rodrigues de Carvalho, A. A., & Ferreira, F. E. de S. (2022).Comparison of mechanical and tribological properties of diamond-like carbon coatings doped with Europium and Gadolinium produced by HiPIMS. In Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture (p. 095440542211365). SAGE Publications.
[NxGNanoTher] Lei, L., Huang, D., Gao, H., He, B., Cao, J., & Peppas, N. A. (2022).Hydrogel-guided strategies to stimulate an effective immune response for vaccine-based cancer immunotherapy. In Science Advances (Vol. 8, Issue 47). American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
[NxGNanoTher] Lanier, O. L., Pérez-Herrero, E., Andrea, A. P. D. ’, Bahrami, K., Lee, E., Ward, D. M., Ayala-Suárez, N., Rodríguez-Méndez, S. M., & Peppas, N. A. (2022). Immunotherapy approaches for hematological cancers. In iScience (Vol. 25, Issue 11, p. 105326). Elsevier BV.
[THER-PBCT] Nuez-Martínez, M., Queralt-Martín, M., Muñoz-Juan, A., Aguilella, V. M., Laromaine, A., Teixidor, F., Viñas, C., Pinto, C. G., Pinheiro, T., Guerreiro, J. F., Mendes, F., Roma-Rodrigues, C., Baptista, P. V., Fernandes, A. R., Valic, S., & Marques, F. (2022). Boron clusters (ferrabisdicarbollides) shaping the future as radiosensitizers for multimodal (chemo/radio/PBFR) therapy of glioblastoma. In Journal of Materials Chemistry B (Vol. 10, Issue 47, pp. 9794–9815). Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).
[QMETA] Chen, Z., Li, J., & Zheng, Y. (2022). Plasmon-Enhanced Optothermal Manipulation. In Lecture Notes in Nanoscale Science and Technology (pp. 233–259). Springer International Publishing.
[QMETA] K. Yao and Y. B. Zheng. Nanophotonics and Machine Learning. (Springer, 2023) ISBN: 9783031204722.

UT Austin Portugal Newsletter | Everything starts with a seed (original) (raw)

Upcoming Events and Opportunities