Apresentação Pessoal

Manuel de Matos Fernandes (Braga-Portugal, 1953) graduated in Civil Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) in 1976, and obtained a PhD from the same University in 1984, with a thesis developed at the Portuguese National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC) on finite element models applied to earth-retaining structures.

After obtaining his PhD, he was a driving force in the creation of a group devoted to Geotechnics in the Department of Civil Engineering of FEUP. He is Full Professor there since 1999. He taught curricular units in the fields of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, as well as on the History of Civil Engineering.

His main research areas concern numerical modelling of geotechnical works, deep urban excavations and the History of Construction.

He was Director of the Department of Civil Engineering (2000-03 and 2009-15), Coordinator of the Construction Study Centre (2009-14), a R&D unit with 50 PhD staff, later part of CONSTRUCT, and a member of the Scientific Council of FEUP (1984-2024) and of the General Council of the University of Porto (2013-17).

He is the author of textbooks on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering published in Portugal and abroad. In 2013 he received the Prize in Pedagogic Excellency of FEUP.

He was a member of the High Council of Public Works, President of the Portuguese Geotechnical Society (2016-20) and editor of Geotecnia (2000-04) and Soil and Rocks (2012-16) journals. From 1991 to 2007, he co-organized the International Workshops on Applications of Computational Mechanics in Geotechnical Engineering and co-edited its proceedings (6). 

He has extensive civic action and has contributed regularly to the dissemination of science to the General Public. He is a regular contributor to the Museu Nacional do Azulejo (he is a founding-member of the Friends of the Museum), and has collaborated with the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis (curator of the exhibition: Entre as Margens, Representações da Engenharia na Arte Portuguesa, 2013), the Museu dos Transportes e Comunicações (curator of the exhibition: Edgar Cardoso, Mecanismos do Génio), the Fundação de Serralves (exhibitions of Anisn Kapoor and Ai Weiwei), the Fine Arts Faculty of the University of Porto and the Portuguese Public Television Network (Series Guided Tours to the Works of Edgar Cardoso). He initiated the formal procedures to the classification of Arrábida Bridge as National Monument (2010-13). He is member of the Scientific Council of the Foundation Marques da Silva.

He is Councelor member and Specialist by the Portuguese Institution of Engineers and  worked as a consultant for the design and construction of public works in Portugal and abroad.

He delivered his Last Lecture in FEUP in November 2023, entitled "The Portuguese Engineering and the Way how it was Moulded by the Portuguese Territory and History".
He was declared Emeritus Professor in March 2024 by the Senate of the University of Porto.
In June 2024 we was awarded with the Medal  of the City of Porto according the decision of the Municipal Council.