Laserlab-Portugal

João Mendanha Dias
Assistant Professor at the IST Physics Dept. and researcher at IPFN. He obtained his degrees (Lic. 1992, MSc 1996 and PhD 2001) from IST. His interests are focused on secondary radiation sources and optical diagnostics in laser-plasma interaction field. He has also devoted significant work to optical applications in medicine (eye optical modeling) and in industry (spectroscopy and laser metrology). At the Physics Dept. he is currently the vice-director of the Engineering Physics Integrated Master Course. In 2012 he was awarded along with his PhD student the Seed of Science Award for exact sciences from the scientific outreach portuguese journal “Jornal Ciência Hoje”.

Marta Fajardo
Investigadora FCT (Development Grant) since January 2014 at the Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Marta Fajardo is a researcher at GoLP since 2007. After her PhD in Plasma Atomic Physics at IST and Ecole Polytechnique in 2001, she was a post-doc at CNRS in France where she studied X-ray lasers and their applications. Back to Portugal, she started a Coherent X-rays research area in X-GoLP, studying X-ray lasers, X-ray laser-plasma interaction, and other coherent x-ray sources such as High Harmonic Generation and applications in imaging. She is currently developing a new 3D x-ray camera.

Gonçalo Figueira
Assistant Professor at the Physics Department of IST and researcher at IPFN. He is a PhD in Physics from the Technical University of Lisbon (2001), specialized in high intensity lasers and ultrashort laser pulses. His research interests include ultrabroadband optical parametric chirped pulse amplification, diode-pumped amplifiers and ultrashort laser diagnostics. He is in charge of laser R&D at IPFN’s Laboratory for Intense Lasers, and coordinates public information activities at IPFN.

Nelson Lopes
Researcher at GoLP - IPFN since 2005. Nelson Lopes is a PhD in Physics from IST (2002) and works mainly in the development of Plasma Accelerators, its technology and applications. He is currently working on betatron x-ray sources for imaging of Biological samples using the laser Astra-Gemini @ RAL.

Luís O. Silva
Professor of Physics at Técnico Lisboa (IST). He obtained his degrees (Lic. 1992, PhD 1997 and Habilitation 2005) from IST. He was a post-doc at UCLA from 1997 to 2001. His scientific contributions are focused in the interaction of intense beams of particles and lasers with plasmas, from a fundamental point of view and towards their applications for secondary sources for biology and medicine. He has authored more than 160 papers and 3 patents, was awarded an Advanced Grant from the ERC, served on the program/selection committees of conferences and prizes worldwide, and on the scientific committee of several EU infrastructures.

Gareth Williams
Post-doctoral researcher at IPFN’s Group for Lasers and Plasmas. He obtained his doctorate in short pulse laser plasmas from the National University of Ireland, Galway in 2009. His current research interests include x-ray laser heated warm dense matter, high harmonic generation and application to ultrafast (atto-second) holographic imaging.

Luís G. Arnaut
PhD in Photochemistry by the University of Coimbra and post-doctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Dallas, is Full Professor of the University of Coimbra. He is the Director of Coimbra LaserLab and the scientist in charge of the Laboratory for Photonics and Reactivity. His research interests range from photodynamic therapy and photodiagnostics, to photoacoustics, to solar energy conversion and include chemical reactivity.

Rui Fausto
His main research interests involve electron and plasma chemistry kinetics in N₂, N₂-O₂ and N₂-CH₄ plasmas. He is in charge of developing the thermal model for the gas/plasma system.

J. Sérgio Seixas de Melo
Associated Professor with habilitation at the University of Coimbra. PhD in Chemistry by the Technical University of Lisbon (1996). He is the scientist in charge of the Photophysics Laboratory. Research Interests: photophysics of conjugated and water soluble oligomers and polymers; photochemistry and photophysics of indigo and related molecules; photochromic molecules; photophysics, proton transfer and tautomerization reactions of hydroxycoumarins; fluorescent chemosensors.

Igor Reva
PhD from the Institute for Low Temperature Physics & Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kharkov, Ukraine) in “Thermophysics and Molecular Physics” and “Biophysics” (1995), Habilitation from the University of Coimbra in “Molecular Spectroscopy” (2010), is invited researcher at Department of Chemistry, University of Coimbra. Research interests:molecular structure, conformational dynamics, tautomerism, vibrational properties and photochemistry of molecular systems.

Carlos Serpa
PhD in Photochemistry by the University of Coimbra and post-doctoral fellow at Caltech (USA), is presently Researcher at the University of Coimbra and acts as Managing Director of the Coimbra Laser Lab. Present research interests focus on biological membranes permeation with photoacoustic waves, Materials Chemistry for Energy and Health applications, and protein and peptide folding. He is founding partner and the CEO of LaserLeap Technologies, an innovation driven start-up company based on patented technology.

João Pina
Researcher at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra. PhD in Chemistry from the University of Coimbra. Experience with Time correlated single photon counting and laser Flash photolysis techniques. The main scientific areas of interests are in the range of the photophysics of organic conjugated oligomers and polymers for LED and solar cell device applications.