She has a degree in Physics and Materials Engineering (1987, NOVA FCT); a PhD in Materials Engineering: Microelectronics and Optoelectronics (1995, NOVA FCT).
Currently she is Professor at the Materials Science Department at NOVA FCT and from 2017 to 2022 she was Vice-Dean of NOVA University, where she has coordinated the research area. She was Director of the Associated Laboratory of the Institute of Nanomaterials, Nanofabrication and Nanomodelling from 1998 to 2022.
From 2015 to 2020 she was selected to be part of the first Group of Chief Scientific Advisors group of seven researchers in the European Commission Scientific Advice Mechanism (https://scientificadvice.eu/) based on scientific evidence.
In March 2022, she become Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education from the Portuguese Government until April 2024.
Since 2010 she has been in the Chancellery of the Honorific Orders of Portugal, at the Presidency of the Republic.
In 2022, she was part of the group of 27 inspiring European Women, elected by the current French Presidency of the European Union.
In the same year she was selected as one of the 20 European inventors by ThinkYoung in a research and publicity project developed by the European Commission in partnership with Ericsson.
She is a pioneer in European research on transparent electronics using sustainable materials and environmentally friendly technologies. In 2008, at the 1st edition of the European Research Council ERC grants, she was awarded an Advanced Grant for the project INVISIBLE, considered in 2011 by the European Commission to be a success story. This year 2024, INVISIBLE project was again selected by ERC and considered as a scientific breakthrough during the ex-post per-review evaluation done by ERC (to be published before summer).
Following her target on sustainable electronics, she showed with her group the possibility of manufacturing the first paper transistor, starting a new field in the area of paper electronics. In 2018 she was awarded a second Advanced Grant for the project DIGISMART. Recently, and following on from the exploratory results of the DIGISMART, she obtained a Proof of Concept with the e-GREEN project: From forests to Green Electronics, focusing on exploring environmentally friendly and low-cost materials and technology exploration.
With over 900 scientific papers published (some highly cited from Web of Science), in the last few years she has been awarded more than 50 prizes and international distinctions for her work, of which we note the title of Grand Officer of the Order of Infante D. Henrique, bestowed by the President of the Republic in 2010, the Blaise Pascal Medal in 2016, the Czochralski prize in 2017, the Pessoa prize in 2020, the Horizon Impact prize by the European Commission in 2020 with the project INVISIBLE, the prize of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations: WFOE GREE AWARD Women in 2020, The Strait of Magellan Prize by the Chilean Government in 2020, the Innovation in Materials prize in 2021 granted by the FEMS and the Human Rights Prize granted by Parliament in 2021. In 2021 she was the winner of the ‘Portugal's Women's Leadership Award’, as part of the ‘Global Summit of Women’, organised by The GlobeWomen Research and Education Institute. In the same year she was awarded with the IUMRS-Frontier Materials Scientists Award by the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology, in the field of materials, in its first edition and also in 2021 she was awarded with the Gold Medal by the Portuguese Order of Engineers.
In 2023 she was honoured with the 2023 Career and Recognition Award by the Portuguese Materials Society. In 2024 she was elected the Trusted Personality of the year in the field of Scientific Research by Reader Digest for the fourth year running and the most Influential Women in Portugal (Revista Executiva) for the 9th consecutive year (since the first edition).
She has coordinated several national and international project, of which we note her pioneering activity at NOVA University in the field of equal opportunities through the SPEAR project, a European platform to support and implement plans for gender equality in higher education institutions.
She is an elected member of the Engineering Academy, the European Science Academy, the Lisbon Science Academy, and the Europaea Academy. She has been on the Luso-American Foundation for Development Board of Trustees since 2014 until 2022.
Transparent electronics; Flexible Electronics; Printed Electronics; Microelectronics; Nanotechnologies and Biomedical Applications.
1. Direct Laser Writing: From Materials Synthesis and Conversion to Electronic Device Processing. T Pinheiro, M Morais, S Silvestre, E Carlos, J Coelho, HV Almeida, E Fortunato, R Martins. ADVANCED MATERIALS, 2402014, 2024
2. Influence of CO2 laser beam modelling on electronic and electrochemical properties of paper-based laser-induced graphene for disposable pH electrochemical sensors. T Pinheiro, A Rosa, C Ornelas, J Coelho, E Fortunato, AC Marques, R. Martins. CARBON TRENDS 11, 100271, 2023
3. Sustainable carbon sources for green laser-induced graphene: A perspective on fundamental principles, applications, and challenges. PI C Claro, T Pinheiro, SL Silvestre, AC Marques, J Coelho, E. Fortunato. APPLIED PHYSICS REVIEWS 9, 2022
4. A review on the applications of graphene in mechanical transduction. AF Carvalho, B Kulyk, AJS Fernandes, E Fortunato, FM Costa. ADVANCED MATERIALS 34, 2101326, 2022
5. Printed, highly stable metal oxide thin-film transistors with ultra-thin high-oxide dielectric. E Carlos, J Leppäniemi, A Sneck, A Alastalo, J Deuermeier, E. Fortunato. ADVANCED ELECTRONIC MATERIALS 6 (3), 1901071, 2020
6. Carlos, E.; Branquinho, R.; Martins, R.; Kiazadeh, A.; Fortunato, E. Recent Progress in Solution-Based Metal Oxide Resistive Switching Devices. ADVANCED MATERIALS, 2020
7. Jana, S.; Carlos, E.; Panigrahi, S.; Martins, R.; Fortunato, E. Toward Stable Solution-Processed High-Mobility P-Type Thin Film Transistors Based on Halide Perovskites. ACS NANO 2020, 14, 14790
8. Ferreira, G.; Goswami, S.; Nandy, S.; Pereira, L.; Martins, R.; Fortunato, E. Touch-Interactive Flexible Sustainable Energy Harvester and Self-Powered Smart Card. ADV. FUNCT. MATER. 2020, 30
9. Solution combustion synthesis: towards a sustainable approach for metal oxides. E Carlos, R Martins, E Fortunato, R Branquinho. CHEMISTRY–A EUROPEAN JOURNAL 26, 9099, 2020.
10. Coll, M. et al., Towards Oxide Electronics: A Roadmap. APPL. SURF. SCI. 2019, 482 (highly cited paper)