Joaquim L. Faria received his PhD (Chemistry, Physical Organic – 1993) from Technical University of Lisbon (Portugal) following the work done at the Max Planck Institute for Radiation Chemistry (Mülheim a. d. Ruhr, Germany). He joined the Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (Univ. of Porto) in 1994 as a staff member, where he founded a research line on Heterogeneous Photocatalysis. He is currently Associate Professor at Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Board Member of the Department of Chemical Engineering of the same Faculty and Vice-President of the Portuguese Chemical Society. His work focuses on materials development for catalysis and catalysed reactions, with thermal and photoactivation, with applications in environment, energy and fine chemical synthesis.