Five of the eleven new members of the Class of Sciences of the Young Scientists Seminar (YSS) are professors and researchers from Instituto Superior Técnico. The names of Emmanuel Zambrini Cruzeiro, Frederico Fiúza, Hugo Terças, Marco Piccardo and Tina Keller-Costa were announced by the Lisbon Academy of Sciences for the 2024-2026 triennium, along with other leading figures of the Portuguese scientific community. They are part of a list of young scientists with “academic and professional CVs of the highest distinction, preferably with international recognition”.
Emmanuel Zambrini Cruzeiro, from Instituto de Telecomunicações, carries out research in the area of quantum communications and is part of a team recently awarded by the Portuguese Mint and Official Printing Office for its work on secure authentication methods.
Frederico Fiúza is a Professor of Plasma Physics at Técnico and, in October last year, he was elected fellow of the American Physical Society for his contributions to this field, particularly in the generation of energetic particles from collisionless shocks, magnetic reconnection and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities.
Hugo Terças, a researcher at the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion, is also a professor of Advanced Plasma Physics at Técnico. In 2020, he published a prominent article in the journal Physical Review D in which he suggested a new method for producing axions in the laboratory.
Marco Piccardo, also a professor at Técnico and a researcher at INESC Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias (INESC MN), authored an article published this year in Nature which studies solitons – solitary laser waves that could be used on a chip scale.
With the aim of “encouraging young scientists of exceptional merit to join the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores – Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias (INESC MN), Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear (IPFN), Instituto de Telecomunicações – IT, Seminário de Jovens Cientistas“, the YSS is made up of researchers aged between 30 and 40. According to the Academy itself, this Seminar “is encouraged to develop activities of a transdisciplinary nature and social relevance, producing documents that can be used by science policy makers and society in general”.
