Manuel Heitor

Manuel Heitor was born in Lisbon, in 1958.

He holds a PhD from Imperial College of London in Mechanical Engineering, in 1985, and a post doctorate in California University, in San Diego, in 1986. He pursued his academic career at Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon, where he developped investigation activity in Fluid Mechanics and Experimental Combustion.

He is Professor in Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon, where he heads the Center of Innovation, Technology and Development Policies Studies, IN+ and coordinates PhD’s programs concerning Engineering and Public Policies and Engineering of Conception and Advanced Manufacturing Systems.

He was Secretary of State of Science, Technology and Higher Education between March 2005 and June 2011.

He was Invited Professor at Harvard University, in the United States, in 2011 and 2012.

He was co-Chairman of Instituto Superior Técnico between 1993 and 1998. During the 90’s, he studied politics of science, technology and innovation. In 1998, he founded Center of Innovation, Technology and Development Policies Studies, IN+, at Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon. In 2005, this center was ranked on the Top 50 global centers of research on Management of Technology, by International Association for the Management of Technology.

He is Research Fellow of Texas University, in Austin, at the Institute of Innovation, Creativity and Capital. He founded and coordinated several international conferences related to Technology Policy and Innovation and is co-editor of the Purdue University Press book collection on Science and Technology Policy. In 2002, he was also co-founder of the international network Globelics – the global network for the economics of learning, innovation, and competence building systems.

Recently, he was one of the promotors of the European network step4EU, science, technology, education and policy for Europe, and the International Observatory of Global Politics for the Exploitation of Atlantic Ocean. In July 2015, he promoted the manifesto «Knowledge as Our Common Future».

He was Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education of the XXI Government (2015-2019).