Elvira Fortunato

Short Biography

Elvira Fortunato is Vice-Rector at NOVA and Director of the Materials Research Center (CENIMAT) of the Associated Laboratory i3N, the Institute of Nanostructures, Nanomodeling and Nanofabrication. Elvira Fortunato pioneered European research on transparent electronics, namely thin-film transistors based on oxide semiconductors, demonstrating that oxide materials may be used as true semiconductors. She is co-inventor of the paper electronics concept worldwide: Paper-e®. In 2008 she wins an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for the project “Invisible” and in 2018 she received the second one ERC, with the amount of € 3.5 million. The project is entitled “Multifunctional Digital Materials Platform for Smart Integrated Applications | DIGISMART”. Her research team is exploring novel active properties in advanced and sustainable multifunctional materials, including oxides as well as novel electronic-active materials including alternative deposition methods, with the main objective of developing eco-friendly technologies and devices to be used and exploited in electronic circuits made of stable amorphous semiconductors able to serve large area smart flexible and conformable surface electronics.

She is an elected member of: Academy of Engineering (2008); European Academy of Sciences (2016); Lisbon Academy of Sciences (2017) and Academia Europaea (2019). She belongs to the Board of Trustees of the Luso-American Development Foundation (2014). The most recent awards are: In September 2020, received the European Commision’s Horizon Impact Award 2020, Winner of the 2020 Pessoa Award (March 2021), The World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) GREE Women in Engineering Award 2020 (08th April 2021), Gold Medal Human Rights 2020 Award recognition granted by the President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal (07th July 2021). Former Chief Scientific Advisor of the European Commission, between 2016 and 2020.
She is coordinating since 2019 at NOVA University the SPEAR project, a European platform for supporting and implementing plans for gender equality in academia and research.