António V. Xavier (1943-2006)

Born in Porto on August 31st. Graduated in Chemical Engineering at Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto (1962-1965) and Instituto Superior Técnico (1965-1969) de Lisboa. He finished his PhD by the University of Oxford, UK, in 1972 and his work pioneered the use of paramagnetic ions in nuclear magnetic resonance to determine the structure of biological molecules in solution. He returned to Portugal and was one of the founding members of Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He would later become full professor at this University. In 1986 he started a new research institute, today known as ITQB, bringing together a wide range of basic research in chemistry, biochemistry and biology and related technologies. He was the head of the institute until 1998. 

Considered as the scientist who set off the use of spectroscopy in Portugal, he vigorously maintained his research activity in Bioinorganic Chemistry, having received many prizes and awards for his dedication. Throughout his life he published more than 200 scientific articles, was directly responsible for 15 PhD theses and trained many other researchers. He was head of the ITQB Laboratory of Structure and Function of Metaloproteins until 2006.