...was born in Portugal in 1978 and, after a couple of years living in Latin America with his parents during his infancy, he came back to study in his home country where he became fascinated by Chemistry during his high school years. This fascination led him to the University of Aveiro where, in 2000, he finished his first degree under the major Analytical Chemistry, obtaining a degree score of 17 (out of 20). In January 2001, after being awarded a merit scholarship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), he headed to the United Kingdom to study towards his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge (Peterhouse College) under the supervision of Professor Jacek Klinowski (Physical Chemistry sector at the University Chemical Laboratories). At the end of 2001 he obtained his Certificate of Post-Graduate Studies in Natural Sciences (Title: “Synthesis and Characterisation of Novel Metal Organic Frameworks”), and in February 2004 he had his Ph.D. viva, also in Natural Sciences (Title: “Novel Organic, Inorganic and Hybrid Frameworks”). Apart from the research inherent to his Ph.D., Filipe also embarked in a number of scientific activities at the University of Cambridge, which include teaching (part IB demonstrations at the Physical Chemistry sector), setting up and equip a Physical/Inorganic Chemistry research laboratory, and even web design (responsible for design, maintain and develop the personal web page for the research where he was integrated). During his stay in the United Kingdom, Filipe also actively participated in an Intensive X-ray course organized by the British Crystallographic Association in Duhram (April 2003), an Organization with whom he has full membership since then.
Never losing contact with the University of Aveiro, namely due to a number of scientific collaborations neutered during his Ph.D. and strongly related to an important part of his own research work, he returned to Portugal in the beginning of 2004, where he occupied (until the present) the position of full-time Auxiliary Researcher in CICECO, a multi-departmental Laboratory associated with the University. Returning to his home country, in particular to his old University, was in essence motivated by the compelling scientific need to start a new research field in his home country, mainly focused in the development of novel crystalline metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and the use X-ray chemical crystallography. He was very well integrated in the on-going research at CICECO, participating in a number of personal collaborations with senior researchers, plus as team member in a couple of approved research and development (R&D) projects by FCT. He also maintains a number of key international collaborations which include Professor Jacek Klinowski (Cambridge, UK), Dr Robert Bell (UCL, London), Professor Krzysztof Wozniak (Warsaw, Poland) and Professor Óscar Malta (RENAMI, Brazil).
With more than 170 papers published (or accepted for publication) in international journals cited in the Science Citation Index (SCI®), the research interests of Filipe Almeida Paz span from MOFs to theoretical prediction of zeolitic materials based on systematic enumeration and using tiling theory. The common denominator among all these areas of research concerns the investigation of the structure of matter in the solid state using X-ray diffraction (single-crystal and powder), in many cases in combination with other techniques such as solid-state NMR.
