UT Austin Portugal Newsletter | Turn challenges into opportunities


Everyone knows that a smooth sea does not make a skilled sailor. So, where others see difficulties and hurdles, we envisage opportunities. In the year the Program celebrates its 15th anniversary, we will be taking stock of the paths we have beaten over the years and reflecting on how farther we can still go.For this issue of our Newsletter, the first of 2022, we have invited José Paulo Esperança, Vice-President of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and Chair of the Program’s Governing Board, to write about how the Program has been standing up to challenges when crises strike.Turning challenges into opportunities By enhancing fundamental knowledge and applications in domains such as nanotechnology, machine learning, advanced computing, sensor development and earth monitoring, the UT Austin Portugal Program turns challenges into opportunities. Challenges range from health problems such as cancer diagnosis and treatment to the more accurate prediction of climate change effects or the applications of frontier knowledge on graphene. This enhanced knowledge contributes to better education at both Portuguese universities and UT Austin, more relevant research, and technology transfer, leading to promising start-ups improving the competencies of many firms. Society at large is the great beneficiary of this joint venture, which has been contributing to ocean monitoring through space observation, improving the capacity for forest fire management, developing new applications of nanotechnologies to health and energy or the decarbonization of industry. In summary, it plays a key role in making society more resilient and capable of reducing the impact of the next black swan, whose nature and time we can not predict.Science can provide rapid and efficient responses, as shown by the unprecedented speed of finding and mass-producing new vaccines that averted potentially far more devastating impacts of Covid. However, many problems require complex solutions, integration of new technologies, access to large pools of data and public and private cooperation, often at a global scale. That is why international cooperation, of which the UT Austin Portugal Program is a reference, is so important. While playing a key role in advancing the supercomputing infrastructure in Portugal, it contributes to a broad exchange of knowledge and data, engaging academics, researchers and firms from both sides of the Atlantic.We live in uncertain times. Black swans, be they financial crises, pandemics or wars, come to the fore at a frequency that we could not have predicted, perhaps due to underestimating their effective probability. They come on top of more enduring challenges such as climate change or the plastic crisis. All of them - sudden or persistent - test societies to the limit, placing a burden on current lifestyles, structures, and technologies. José Paulo Esperança, Vice-President of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)Chair of the Program’s Governing Board

Everyone knows that a smooth sea does not make a skilled sailor. So, where others see difficulties and hurdles, we envisage opportunities. In the year the Program celebrates its 15th anniversary, we will be taking stock of the paths we have beaten over the years and reflecting on how farther we can still go.For this issue of our Newsletter, the first of 2022, we have invited José Paulo Esperança, Vice-President of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and Chair of the Program’s Governing Board, to write about how the Program has been standing up to challenges when crises strike.Turning challenges into opportunities By enhancing fundamental knowledge and applications in domains such as nanotechnology, machine learning, advanced computing, sensor development and earth monitoring, the UT Austin Portugal Program turns challenges into opportunities. Challenges range from health problems such as cancer diagnosis and treatment to the more accurate prediction of climate change effects or the applications of frontier knowledge on graphene. This enhanced knowledge contributes to better education at both Portuguese universities and UT Austin, more relevant research, and technology transfer, leading to promising start-ups improving the competencies of many firms. Society at large is the great beneficiary of this joint venture, which has been contributing to ocean monitoring through space observation, improving the capacity for forest fire management, developing new applications of nanotechnologies to health and energy or the decarbonization of industry. In summary, it plays a key role in making society more resilient and capable of reducing the impact of the next black swan, whose nature and time we can not predict.Science can provide rapid and efficient responses, as shown by the unprecedented speed of finding and mass-producing new vaccines that averted potentially far more devastating impacts of Covid. However, many problems require complex solutions, integration of new technologies, access to large pools of data and public and private cooperation, often at a global scale. That is why international cooperation, of which the UT Austin Portugal Program is a reference, is so important. While playing a key role in advancing the supercomputing infrastructure in Portugal, it contributes to a broad exchange of knowledge and data, engaging academics, researchers and firms from both sides of the Atlantic.We live in uncertain times. Black swans, be they financial crises, pandemics or wars, come to the fore at a frequency that we could not have predicted, perhaps due to underestimating their effective probability. They come on top of more enduring challenges such as climate change or the plastic crisis. All of them - sudden or persistent - test societies to the limit, placing a burden on current lifestyles, structures, and technologies. José Paulo Esperança, Vice-President of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)Chair of the Program’s Governing Board

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On the most recent episode of Cross Talks...


On the sixth episode of Cross Talks, Rosa Romero, Sphere Ultrafast Photonics CEO, and Andrew Dunn, Director of the Center for Emerging Imaging Technologies at the University of Texas at Austin, enlightened us about lasers! It was not at the speed of light - we promise! - but it was quite a journey across the project ExtreMed.Are you curious to discover how Rosa and Andrew will bolster the microscopy market by advancing lasers that will allow us to observe live tissues with lowered photo-induced damage?

On the sixth episode of Cross Talks, Rosa Romero, Sphere Ultrafast Photonics CEO, and Andrew Dunn, Director of the Center for Emerging Imaging Technologies at the University of Texas at Austin, enlightened us about lasers! It was not at the speed of light - we promise! - but it was quite a journey across the project ExtreMed.Are you curious to discover how Rosa and Andrew will bolster the microscopy market by advancing lasers that will allow us to observe live tissues with lowered photo-induced damage?


A year in review: our 2021 Annual Report is out! It is not easy to summarize 365 days in less than 100 pages, especially when we have so much to share, but we did our best, and the result could not be any more satisfactory. The UT Austin Portugal’s 2021 Annual Report is out, and we invite you to read it. Are you ready to come on board?


Online Advanced Course on Biomedical Imaging 2022 – Thematic Talks As part of the Online Advanced Course on Biomedical Imaging 2022, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto and the UT Austin Portugal Program will bring, for a series of online talks on PET, Proton Therapy and Radiotherapy, experts from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC), the German Cancer Research Center (DKZ) and UT Austin Portugal’s projects TOF-PET for Proton Therapy and AT@PT. Read more and know how to register for the sessions.

Online Advanced Course on Biomedical Imaging 2022 – Thematic Talks As part of the Online Advanced Course on Biomedical Imaging 2022, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto and the UT Austin Portugal Program will bring, for a series of online talks on PET, Proton Therapy and Radiotherapy, experts from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC), the German Cancer Research Center (DKZ) and UT Austin Portugal’s projects TOF-PET for Proton Therapy and AT@PT. Read more and know how to register for the sessions.

Celebrating Women's International Day

Following International Women’s Day, on March 8, we decided to dedicate this Newsletter’s edition to all the women who have been writing UT Austin Portugal’s history with us. And, indeed, throughout these 15 years, so many women have left their footprint in the Program. Today, we bring you two of those inspirational women.

We start off with

Marie-Paule Pileni, a renowned collaborative scientist with an extensive career in nanotechnology and an avocate for Woman in Science. Marie-Paule has been collaborating with us since Phase 2 as a project proposal reviewer for Calls for Exploratory Research Projects. She was recently invited to serve on the Program’s External Review Committee (ERC).

As a child, “Medicine doctor” was Marie-Paule’s immediate answer to whoever asked her about what she wanted to be when she grew up. Life is full of surprises, and eventually, Marie-Paule took a different path. Although she did not have the faintest idea about her professional future, she decided to study physical chemistry. And how glad we are Marie-Paule has decided so. Read More.

We have also invited Maria Oliveira to participate in this issue. With a background in Zootechnical Engineering and Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Business, Maria is now the Business Director of the Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto (UPTEC). Her experience with the UT Austin Portugal Program ranged from participating in exchange programs to being Executive Director in 2012.

Although Maria is practically our neighbor – Maria is the Business Director of UPTEC, whose headquarters are located very close to INESC TEC, where our Program is based - we couldn’t resist asking her what she has been up to. As the conversation unfolded, Maria confessed that she has a restlessness and curious soul, which led her through an expedition from zootechnical engineering to innovation, technology transfer and entrepreneurship. Read more.

What about our Phase 3 Principal Investigators?

We are so glad to have so many talented women collaborating with us, contributing with knowledge, expertise and creativity to push forward science and technology. This wall celebrates the women who have led and still lead breakthrough research under UT Austin Portugal’s Phase 3 (2018 -).

From the left to the right, starting from above: Ana Pêgo, Ana Moita, Carla Cruz, Carla Morais, Helena Florindo, Joana Dias, Laura Salonen, Marta Laranjeiro, Paloma Huidobro, Paula Ferreira, Rosa Romero, Susana Custódio.

UT Austin Portugal's Annual Report


Last year, our community achieved many accomplishments. Delve into our 2021 Annual Report!

15 years of UT Austin Portugal


Inviting all of you to join and celebrate with us!

UT Austin Portugal and its community in the Media

[COFforH2] Boronic-acid-derived covalent organic frameworks: from synthesis to applications. Frey, L., Jarju, J. J., Salonen, L. M., & Medina, D. D. (2021).

[COFforH2] Emerging artificial metalloenzymes for asymmetric hydrogenation reactions. Goralski, S. T., & Rose, M. J. (2022).

[COFforH2] Scaffold-based [Fe]-hydrogenase model: H2 activation initiates Fe(0)-hydride extrusion and non-biomimetic hydride transfer. Kerns, S. A., Seo, J., Lynch, V. M., Shearer, J., Goralski, S. T., Sullivan, E. R., & Rose, M. J. (2021).

[ImmuneNanoVac] T-Follicular Helper Cells. (2022). In L. Graca (Ed.), Methods in Molecular Biology. Springer US.

[ImmuneNanoVac] Identification of Human T Follicular Cells in Ectopic Lymphoid Structures. Pedroso, R., Ribeiro, F., Pires, A. R., Graca, L., & Fonseca, V. R. (2021).

[ImmuneNanoVac] Identification of Human Blood and Tissue T Follicular Regulatory (Tfr) Cells by Flow Cytometry. Ribeiro, F., Ávila-Ribeiro, P., Fonseca, J. E., & Graca, L. (2021).

[ImmuneNanoVac] T follicular cells: The regulators of germinal center homeostasis. In Immunology Letters (Vol. 244, pp. 1–11). Elsevier BV. Ribeiro, F., Perucha, E., & Graca, L. (2022).

[SOS-WindEnergy] Horizontal- and Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines on Existing Jacket Platforms: Part 2 – Retrotting Activities, Structures, in press. Mendes, P., Correia, J.A.F.O., Heo, T., Fantuzzi, N. & Manuel, L. (2022).

[SOS-WindEnergy] A review of fatigue damage in offshore wind turbine structures, 4th International Conference on Structural Integrity (ICSI 2021), Book of Abstracts, P. Moreira & P. Tavares (Editors). D. Haselibozchaloee, J. Correia, P. Mendes, M. Correia, A. Jesus & F. Berto.

[SOS-WindEnergy] Sustainable reuse of decommissioned jacket platforms for offshore wind energy accounting for accumulated fatigue damage, Proceedings of the ASME 2022 41th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering (OMAE2022). Taemin Heo, Ding Peng Liu, Lance Manuel, José Correia, Paulo Mendes.

[SOS-WindEnergy] Numerical analysis and discussion on the hot-spot stress concept applied to welded tubular KT joints. In Engineering Failure Analysis. Elsevier BV. Vieira Ávila, B., Correia, J., Carvalho, H., Fantuzzi, N., De Jesus, A., & Berto, F. (2022).

[MAGAL] MAGAL Constellation – Using a Small Satellite Altimeter Constellation to Monitor Local and Regional Ocean and Inland Water Variations. In ESA 4S Symposium 2022. Guerra, A. (2022).

[BigHPC] CaT: Content-aware Tracing and Analysis for Distributed Systems. Accepted at the ACM/IFIP Middleware conference. Middleware'21. Esteves, T. Neves, F., Oliveira, R. & Paulo, J. (2021).

UT Austin Portugal Newsletter | Turn challenges into opportunities (original) (raw)

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