Francisco C. Santos — Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of Instituto Superior Técnico and INESC-ID Artificial Intelligence for People and Society (AIPS) researcher — has been appointed Vice-president of FCT, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia). Santos joins Madalena Alves — FCT’s new president and Full Professor of Environmental Biotechnology and Bioengineering at Universidade do Minho, and also Técnico alumna (MSc, Biotechnology).

Before taking on the vice-presidency of FCT, Santos has led an accomplished teaching and research career focused on applying and developing computational tools to understand collective dynamics and decision-making in social and life sciences. Having received his PhD in Computer Science from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Santos was a researcher at the Machine Learning Group of ULB and subsequently Investigador Auxiliar at the Centre for Artificial Intelligence of NOVA. In 2016 Santos was awarded the CGD / University of Lisbon prize in Computer Science and, the following year, the 2017 Young Scientist Award for Socio-Econophysics of the German Physical Society.