Bernardo Albuquerque Nogueira
PhD in Chemistry
Biography
Bernardo Albuquerque Nogueira was born in Coimbra in 1992 and spent his childhood in Braga, where he completed his pre-university studies. He also resided in Itu, Brazil, for three years (2000-2002). At the age of 18, Bernardo returned to Coimbra and enrolled at the University of Coimbra. Currently, he divides his time between Porto and Braga, located in the northern part of Portugal.
Bernardo has a wide range of personal interests, including listening to music, attending live gigs, watching sports (particularly handball, football, and cycling), reading various genres of books (with favorite authors such as Carl Sagan, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Carlo Rovelli, and Jack London), and traveling as much as possible.
Throughout his academic journey, Bernardo actively participated in numerous associative roles within various organizations. He served as the elected President of the Chemistry Students Association in Coimbra (2013-2014), held a board member position in the Coimbra Academic Association (2015-2016), and was the co-founder and the first elected President of the Portuguese Chemistry Students Association (2014-2015). Additionally, he co-founded and served as the CEO of Molecular JE (2017-2021), which became the first Portuguese Junior Enterprise focused on science communication.
Academic degrees
Bernardo earned his first BSc in Medicinal Chemistry in 2013, followed by a second BSc in Chemistry in 2014, and then completed his MSc in Chemistry in 2016, all from the University of Coimbra.
In 2017, Bernardo embarked on his PhD studies in Chemistry Specialization in Molecular Spectroscopy), also at the University of Coimbra. During this period, he had the opportunity of spending one year at Politecnico di Milano, as Visiting PhD at the Laboratory of Organic Functional and Nanostructured Materials (Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering "Giulio Natta").
Bernardo successfully defended his PhD thesis in July 2022, his PhD thesis, titled "Generation and Characterization of Novel Materials exhibiting Color Polymorphism." The PhD project was supervised by Prof. Rui Fausto and Prof. Chiara Castiglioni.
Research
Bernardo is currently a Research Fellow at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), located in Braga, Portugal. His primary focus lies in the innovative design and synthesis of plasmonic composites, specifically for their application in detecting water toxins through Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS).
Other of his scientific interests are related to polymorphism, studied from a structural, computational, spectroscopic, and thermodynamic approach. He has also been involved in astrochemistry, pharmaceutical control, and inorganic field studies, specially conducted by Raman spectroscopy.
Additionally, Bernardo is also very interested in the Origin of Life scientific field, and particularly in one of the eldest and most intringuing (scientific) questions ever made by humans: "How did life begin?".
Hitherto (May 2024), Bernardo has authored 30+ peer-reviewed papers and contributed to 3 book chapters. These works have garnered 280+ citations (h-index: 9; i10-index: 9).
Beyond his research endeavors, Bernardo actively devotes a portion of his time to educational initiatives and outreach projects, having recently published a popular science, A Ciência das Coisas (The Science of Things), tailored for children aged 8 to 12 years old.