Luis V. Melo is a Professor at the Physics Department of Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST), of the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal. After BSc and MSc work at LIP and CERN on fast data acquisition, he obtained his PhD on Physics Engineering in 1996 from IST with work on Giant Magneto-Resistive (GMR) Multilayers and Sensors.
In 1998, he moved on to Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM), having installed the first SPM laboratory in Portugal. He has since then developed work in different fields related to SPM, as AFM applied to Biology and to nanofabrication, as well as imaging in different fields of materials science. In 2006, he obtained Habilitation in Physics from the same University.
Since 2006, he has been Advisor of the Director of the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) for matters related to NanoSciences and NanoTechnologies. He is coordinator of the Portuguese Nanotechnology Network PortugalNano. He is also the national delegate to different international bodies, including the European Union (EU) High Level Group on Nanotechnologies, the EU JTIs ENIAC (on Nanoelectronics) and ARTEMIS (on Embedded Systems), and the EU FP7 Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Materials and Production Technologies (NMP) Program Committee. He is also member of the OECD Working Party on Nanotechnology, of which he is a vice-chairman. He is also the Portuguese pivot point for specific bilateral cooperation agreements on Nanotechnology with France and Brazil.
Recent work developed includes the study of cellular phenomena, as cilia growth in the ciliate protozoan Tetrahymena and the host cell invasion by parasite protozoan Besnoitia, and also work related to the behaviour of microtubules in large electromagnetic fields. He also developed a nanometre-sized pattern fabrication method using an AFM metal-coated tip. This technique was further expanded to the fabrication of metal/semiconductor junctions.
Professor Luis Melo will be working with Professor Heinrich Hoerber in the Department of Physics and NSQI on developing applications of AFM-based nanofabrication techniques to a new generation of nanometre-sized devices.
For more information on Professor Melo's visit, please contact Professor Heinrich Hoerber.
