Biographical note

Pedro Arezes was born in Barcelos in 1972 and has lived in Guimarães for over 30 years. He holds a degree in Production Engineering and a PhD in Production and Systems Engineering from UMinho, where he has pursued his academic career since 1995, as a full professor in the Department of Production and Systems at the School of Engineering and a researcher at the Algoritmi Centre. He was President of this School between 2019 and 2025 and National Director of the MIT Portugal Programme for almost a decade. He has coordinated more than 50 national and international research projects and published more than 150 scientific articles in the areas of ergonomics, human factors and safety.

He has taught and collaborated with several universities in Portugal and abroad, and has also participated in scientific evaluation bodies for various international agencies. He has held positions in national and regional advisory bodies, combining his academic career with institutional leadership. Pedro Arezes will be the 10th Rector in the 51-year history of UMinho, following Carlos Lloyd Braga, Joaquim Barbosa Romero, Lúcio Craveiro da Silva, João de Deus Pinheiro, Sérgio Machado dos Santos, Licínio Chainho Pereira, António Guimarães Rodrigues, António M. Cunha and Rui Vieira de Castro.

The University of Minho has 21,000 students (11% of whom are foreign) in more than 200 courses at its 12 Schools/Institutes in Braga and Guimarães. It has been a national leader in open science, patents and sustainability. It hosts the main Portuguese-speaking public supercomputer, the largest national university-industry project, and produces a tenth of the country’s science. It has around 500 R&D projects underway with almost 3,000 researchers and professors, 69 of whom are among the most cited in the world (World’s Top 2% Scientists). It has 11 cultural and differentiated units, around 1,500 events per year and academic and community projects in various locations, particularly in the CPLP.