Along the years I was fortunate to supervise the research and the dissertations of a brilliant group of graduate students. I have tried to the best of my abilities to train a new generation of historians of science in Portugal making them able to match the most demanding international standards of the profession. But in truth I was the one who benefited the most --- from their talents, their knowledge, and their stimulus. Here is information on my former students, my present PhD and MSc students, and also my Post-doctoral collaborators.


Doctoral students

Bernardo Mota (PhD, 2008) got his degree under my supervision (co-supervisor was Arnaldo do Espírito Santo). His excellent dissertation won the very prestigious «Prix Jeune Historien» of the Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences (2009). He also got a Humboldt fellowship and is now working in Berlin.

Bruno Almeida finished writing his PhD dissertation and is now waiting for the public examination. He investigated the influence of Pedro Nunes' ideas in sixteenth century Portuguese and European science. It is the first full length work on this important topic. He has already published some of his research and participated in many international conferences.

Teresa Nobre de Carvalho is at the writing stage of her PhD dissertation. Her work is the first full length modern approach to Garcia de Orta and it is full of surprises. I believe it will change dramatically the traditional view of Orta and his work. (I am co-supervising her work together with Rui Loureiro).

Francisco Romeiras's doctoral research is on teaching and popularization of science, especially the biological sciences, in Portugal in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He is especially interested in analising the role played by Jesuit colleges and the journal Brotéria. He set up a site with some results of his research.

Cristina Picanço is working on the description of sea animals by fifteenth to seventeenth century sailors and travelers. She is interested on the narratives used to describe these animals, the discussions around evidence and credibility, the visual depictions, the connection of new observations with ancient knowledge.

Luis Tirapicos, who got his Master's degree under my supervision in 2010 (see below), decided that he hadn´t had enough of me and started doctoral studies under my supervision. He is working on a (long desired) study of the scientific activities of Giovanni Battista Carbone during the kingdom of D. João V.

José Manuel Malhão Pereira´s doctoral dissertation is on Portuguese nautical techniques of the seventeenth and eighteenth century -- a rather poorly known subject. J. M. Malhão Pereira is today's most accomplished expert on nautical instruments and ancient navigational techniques in Portugal and it has been been a pleasure working together. He already presented some of his work in talks at Harvard, Greenwich, Budapest and many other places.


Master's students

Pedro Raposo (MSc, 2006) got his MSc degree under my supervision and went on to win a «Magellan Prize» at the University of Oxford. He completed his PhD degree in Oxford under Jim Bennet in 2010.

Luis Tirapicos (MSc, 2010) got his degree with a dissertation on telescopes in Portugal (mostly in the eighteenth century). Luis is already the leading expert in this subject and his work is a major advance in our understanding of this topic.

Ana Bastião (MSc, 2010) edited a late seventeenth century text on nautical matters. This is an important topic since studies on Portuguese nautical techniques tend to focus only on the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Alexandre Silva (MSc, 2011) did his dissertation on the historical development of the stereographic projection. His dissertation addressed the mathematics involved and also a discussion of historical problems and some practical applications of astrolabes.

Ana Marín (MSc, 2011) finished her dissertation under my supervision (co-supervisor was José Vaquero) on the scientific activities (meteorology, astronomy) of Bento Sanches Dorta (1739-1795).

Gianriccardo Pastore is working under my supervision on astrological knowledge and practices in Portugal in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century.


Postdoctoral collaborators

Samuel Gessner has been doing excellent work on instruments, especially sixteenth century instruments. He is an expert of international reputation in his field and his contributions have been of the utmost importance for the history of instruments in Portugal.

Luana Giurgevich is working on scientific libraries in Portugal and the circulation of scientific books. The topic is very important but largely neglected in Portuguese historiography.

Joaquim Alves Gaspar is a pioneer in the development and application of modern cartometric techniques to the study of ancient (sixteenth century) nautical charts. This is a very new and, in my opinion, one of the most promising approaches to the history of cartography to have appeared in recent years.

Antonio Sánchez Martínez recently joined our group. He will be working on Portuguese and Spanish cartography of the early modern period.



Thinking of working under my supervision?
You are very welcome to show up and tell me your plans, but read this first.
Do you have any special linguistic skills? Can you read Arabic? Hebrew? Chinese? Are you well-trained in reading medieval paleography ? Then I want to meet you -- Let's talk.