Contacts Ombudsperson Office

Ombudsperson Office

Raquel Aires Barros

Education Ombudsperson

Provedoria.Ensino@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

I am a Full Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Instituto Superior Técnico, and a researcher at the Institute of Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB). I graduated from Instituto Superior Técnico with a degree in Chemical Engineering. I was a visiting researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) between 1986-1987. I obtained a master’s degree in Biotechnology (Biochemical Engineering), a PhD in Chemical Engineering in 1990, and an aggregation degree from IST.

I am the coordinator of the scientific-pedagogical area of Molecular Engineering and Bioprocesses in the Department of Bioengineering at IST. I served as the coordinator of the Master’s program in Biological Engineering at IST from 2010 to 2012. I was a member of the Scientific Committee of the MIT/Portugal PhD Program, and I served as the President of the Center for Biological and Chemical Engineering (CEBQ) at IST from 2010 to 2012. I was the Vice-President of the Scientific Council and a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Scientific Council of IST from 2007 to 2009. From 2012 to 2020, I was the President of the Pedagogical Council of IST. Since 2021, I have been the Vice-President of the School Council of IST.

At iBB, I lead a research group focused on the development of new processes for the production and purification of biopharmaceuticals, as well as the scaling of these processes to the microscale. I am the President of the Downstream Processing section of the European Society of Biochemical Engineering Sciences (ESBES) and the President of the Portuguese Society of Biotechnology. I am an editor of the journal Separation and Purification Technology. I have supervised over 60 master’s and doctoral dissertations and authored more than 200 articles and book chapters in the fields of Biotechnology and Bioengineering.

Joao Sanches

Professionals Ombudsperson

Provedoria.Profissionais@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

João Sanches is a Full Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Instituto Superior Técnico, where he coordinates the scientific area of Biomedical Systems and Biosignals and leads the Master’s and Doctoral Programs in Biomedical Engineering. He received his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees from Instituto Superior Técnico in 1991, 1996, and 2003, respectively, and obtained his Habilitation (Agregação) in Biomedical Engineering from Universidade de Lisboa in 2013.

Before joining the Department of Bioengineering, he was a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he taught courses in signal processing, systems, and control. He also served as Deputy President for Scientific Affairs at theInstitute for Systems and Robotics, where he continues to conduct research within the Laboratory of Evolutionary Systems and Biomedical Engineering (LASEEB). He is a Senior Member of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

His research lies at the intersection of biomedical engineering, medical image analysis, and statistical signal processing of physiological and behavioral data. His current work focuses on developing computational methods for the quantification and mapping of molecular and morphometric biomarkers in cancer, creating digital technologies for the diagnosis and monitoring of mental health disorders, particularly in psychiatry, and advancing artificial intelligence tools to support clinical decision-making in intensive care units.

As a research group leader, JS has fostered a highly multidisciplinary environment that integrates expertise from biology, medicine, engineering, and computer science. This collaborative approach has resulted in approximately 200 peer-reviewed international publications and has contributed to significant advances in translational biomedical research and healthcare technologies.