The European Science Foundation appoints Alexandre Tiedtke Quintanilha as new chairman of the Standing Committee for Life and Environmental Sciences (LESC)

Meeting Sydney Brenner in 1972, was crucial in his decision to reorient his research towards biology. That same year, he moved to Berkeley, University of California (UC) and remained there for almost twenty years. While at Berkeley, his research interests focused primarily on biochemical and physiological mechanisms of oxidative stress to living organisms. At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) he was asked to launch and direct a new Centre for the study of environmental effects of technology and became the Assistant Director of one of the five largest divisions of the Laboratory, the Energy and Environment Division.

In 1991 he moved to the Biomedical Institute at the University of Porto, and shortly thereafter became their Science Dean. As a result of Portugal having recently joined the European Union, he proposed the creation of a new Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology (IBMC), which was approved and completed in 1997. He is currently the director of this Institute. He is also President of the Scientific Council for the Pavilion of Knowledge (the new Museum for Interactive Science in Lisbon).

At the European Commission, he was the chair of the Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects (ELSA) of Technology for several years and was on the Bureau of the European Science and Technology Assembly (ESTA). He continues to represent Portugal on a number of international committees, and is currently the chair of the External Advisory Group for Mobility of Researchers at the EC, and of the Working-Group on Human Related Biotechnology at the OECD.

 With more than 150 publications in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, and several books edited in areas of stress and the environment, his research interests have focused on the identification of molecular markers of risk in a variety of living systems. Over the years, he has paid a great deal of attention to promoting science education. By visiting dozens of high schools every year, appearing on several TV and radio programmes, and promoting public debates on life sciences issues.

Alex Quintanilha has lived in three continents for extensive periods of time. He speaks English, Portuguese, French and German fluently, and understands Spanish and Italian.

Category: Media Centre, Press Releases 2003