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U.Porto Memory

Grand Hall of the University of Porto - Portrait Gallery

	Álvaro Machado Teacher, writer and Head of the Laboratory of Physics and the Meteorology Observatory of Serra do Pilar Portrait by Heitor Cramez (1947)

Biography of Álvaro Machado (1879-1946)

Álvaro Rodrigues Machado was born in Lordelo, Guimarães, on 24 November 1879.

He was a secondary education student in Braga and a university student in Coimbra, at the faculties of Mathematics and Physics, where he graduated in 1901. He also attended the Science Teacher Training Course for secondary education and Industrial Chemistry.

Throughout his teaching career, he taught at the Liceu Académico de Coimbra, Liceu de Braga (1906) and Liceu Rodrigues de Freitas, Porto (1908). From 1911 on, he taught at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, and also taught at the School of Pharmacy of Porto and the Industrial and Commercial Institute.
On 30 December 1911, he was appointed 2^nd provisional Assistant of the 1^st group, 2^nd Section of FCUP (published in the Official Journal, no. 12, of 15 January 1912). In the following years, he became 1^st provisional Assistant of the same group and section (1912), 2^nd Full Assistant of the 1^st group and 3^rd Section (1913) after submitting his thesis entitled "Liberdade e Motilidade dos Iontes. Condutibilidade dos Electrólitos", 1^st Assistant of the same group and section (appointed in 1915 and again in 1922), and full professor of the 3^rd group – Physics (1928). He was the first teacher of the independent chair of "Acoustics, Optics and Heat".
At the Faculty of Sciences, he was in charge of the Meteorological Observatory of Serra do Pilar - appointed interim director in 1920, he was discharged in 1922; in 1926, he returned to his post and in 1929 became full director; he was also in charge of the Laboratory of Physics between 23 November and 31 December 1937. In 1938, he replaced Dr. Alexandre Alberto de Sousa Pinto who had been responsible for this laboratory.
He received his PhD title in Physics and Chemistry in 1928 by the FCUP School Board.

Álvaro Machado travelled across Europe to study the organization of science teaching and participated in pedagogical congresses on public secondary education between 1927 and 1931. In 1934, he became part of the commission in charge of reviewing the high school curricula. He examined, for example, the Physics and Chemistry curricula promulgated in October 1931.
He published scientific papers in works such as "Anais of Polytechnic Academy of Porto" and educational textbooks, such as "Lições de Óptica" (1927) and "Elementos de Física Experimental para o Curso Geral dos liceus" (1931).
He was a member of the Institute of Coimbra, the Lusitana Medical Association and of the Society of Physics and Chemistry.

He died in Porto on 21 November 1946.

Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2012. Scientific Review by Jorge Fernandes Alves (FLUP)