Paulo Ferrão is Full Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico – University of Lisbon, President of IN+, Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research. He is the the President of the COST association (https://www.cost.eu). He has been the President of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia from 2016 to 2019, and Director of the MIT-Portugal Program from 1996 to 2016. He is a member of the Environmental Advisory Committee of Rolls-Royce.

He has been active in the area of “Sustainable Cities”, where he co-authored a book at MIT-Press on “Sustainable Urban Metabolism”. He is a member of the European Commission Mission Board on “Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities”, and he has been engaged with the U.S. National Academies as a member of the Sustainability Roundtable, the Committee on “Sustainability Linkages in the Federal Government” and the committee of “Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities for the United States”. He has been leading the urban project component in two ADB projects, for which the publication “Urban metabolism of six Asian Cities” emerged. His scientific career has evolved within the areas of “Laser diagnostics for turbulent combustion”, “Energy Systems” and “Industrial Ecology”. He is very active in the area of Waste management, and he was the coordinator of the National Waste Management Strategy for Portugal and of the Portuguese Municipal Waste Management Strategic Plan (PERSU 2020).

He is author and co-author of nine books and more than hundred peer-reviewed papers published in scientific journals and a variety of book chapters and over hundred papers presented in conferences and invited talks in different domains.