Curriculum Vitae
I was born in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1959, where I grew up and attended School. In 1983 I got a B. S. degree in Physics from Universidad Nacional de Colombia and in 1984 I had completed the 5 years of Computer Science at Universidad Distrital de Bogotá and was finishing the final project to get the degree, when I had to travel to the U. S. A., without completing the degree requirements.
In the U. S. A. I attended graduate studies in Physics, funded by a Fulbright Scholarship. I received an M. A. degree in Physics, in 1987, and a Ph. D. in Physics and Astronomy, in 1990, both from the University of Rochester, New York. While doing graduate studies at the University of Rochester, I also attended painting classes with Diane Sophrin, Lynne Feldman, Peter Berg and Barry Dalgleish (this last one at the Rochester Institute of Technology). In 2010 I started attending drawing lessons with Daniel Gamelas at Atelier de Arte Realista do Porto.
In 1990 I moved to Portugal, where I have lived permanently since.
Job experience
Since a very early age, my main activity has been teaching. I started tutoring math and geometry in 1972 and worked as volunteer teacher in 1975 (math and Spanish reading/writting). In 1982 I was a Teaching Assistant at the Physics Department in Universidad Nacional, Bogotá. In 1983 I was a High-School physics teacher at Colegio Moderno Americano, Bogotá, and in 1984 I taught a course on Introduction to Personal Computers at SENA (Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje) in Bogotá.
In the University of Rochester, I worked as a tutor at the Academic Advising Office, from 1985 to 1990. Since 1992, I have been an Assistant Professor at the Engineering School of the University of Porto, Portugal.
Throughout the years I have had several other jobs. When I was 13, we started a small business with a classmate, selling hand-painted furniture. Together with one of my brothers, who was majoring in Civil Engineering, we worked as independent surveyors, from 1981 to 1983. We used to make land plans and deformation studies of structures.
Research
Currently, my main research interests are Astronomical Optical Interferometry and e-learning systems. In the area of astronomical interferometry, I started working recently with the GRAVITY project of the European Southern Observatory. In the area of e-learning, I have supervised 2 Master theses on the production of multimedia educational material and the use of the Learning Management System MOODLE, and I am currently supervising a Ph. D. thesis.
My Ph. D. thesis in Physics was a theoretical study in the boundary between particle physics and nuclear physics. I continued to work in that subject, as a post-doc, at the Complexo Interdisciplinar of the University of Lisbon, between 1990 and 1992.
In 1992, having been hired at the School of Engineering of the University of Porto, I started exploring other physics research areas where I could involve undergraduate students from the Department of Chemical Engineering. From 1993 to 1999 I worked in Food Science (physical properties of food and food drying processes). I was involved in a European project and an Ibero-American project (CYTED) and from 1998 to 2008 I was a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Food Properties. I supervised 5 senior projects on Chemical Engineering, related to food science.
In 1999, when it was decided to create a Department of Engineering Physics in our School, I stopped doing research in food science and started working on software development, supervising students majoring in Informatics and Computer Engineering. My main interest has been Free Software. From 1999 to 2002 I was involved in the organization of several events to promote the use and development of Free Software; some of those events were organized together with the Municipal Council of Porto, UNESCO, and Hispalinux (Spain). I was a founding member and the first president of the Portuguese Free Software Association (ANSOL). Within this area of research, I was involved in one European project (Edukalibre), supervised one post-doc, 2 master theses and 10 senior projects in Informatics and Computer Engineering and I am currently supervising a Ph. D, thesis on Computational Physics.
From 2001 to 2009 I was a member of the ATLAS collaboration at CERN, in the area of software related to the experiment. Within that project, I supervised 6 Master theses and 7 senior projects of students from our University, working at CERN in Switzerland,
Painting
I have always been interested in painting and I do it as a hobby. I am particularly interested in realism and the human figure. I share a studio with other painters and sculptors who are also interested in the classical techniques of representing the human figure.