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University of Porto Famous Alumni

António Xavier

António Xavier 1943-2006 Engineer and scientist

António Augusto de Vasconcelos Xavier, the youngest of the three sons of the couple José Inácio Xavier and Maria Isabel Vasconcelos Lopes, was born at the Ordem do Terço hospital, in Porto, on 31st August 1943.
Just after his birth, his family moved from the city centre (Rua Costa Cabral) to the seaside, in Miramar, Vila Nova de Gaia, where he accomplished his primary school studies, as well as his preparatory school studies, at the private school of Aguda and Miramar.

In 1954 his family returned to Porto, and settled in Boavista. António Xavier attended the D. Manuel II school (presently the Rodrigues de Freitas secondary school) as a boarding student, where he accomplished his second cycle in 1959, with a final grade of 12 out of 20, and the 'Curso Complementar dos Liceus – alínea f' in 1962, with a mark of 13 out of 20.
That same year, he entered the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, to proceed with his studies on Chemical Engineering. In 1964, during his first degree studies, he married D. Maria Francisca Merckx de Bívar Branco, at the Igreja dos Lóios de Évora. Three children were born from this marriage.
In 1965 he asked to be transferred from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto to the Higher Technical Institute (IST), in Lisbon, where he accomplished his first degree in Chemical and Industrial Engineering in 1969, with a final grade of 15 out of 20.
He then grew interested in the study of metal ions in biological systems, influenced by Dr. Robert D. Gillard, whom he met in 1969, at a Conference Cycle at the Higher Technical Institute. He worked at the laboratory of the Gulbenkian Science Institute, and applied to a PhD grant at the University of Oxford. Nevertheless, before the results of this application were released, he decided (upon a recommendation of Professor João Fraústo da Silva) to enter the laboratory of Professor Robert J. O. Williams, his PhD supervisor, where he worked with Professor Evert Nieboer.
The studies he followed set the basis for his innovative thesis on the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for the study of flexible molecular structures in solution, using lanthanides as extrinsic paramagnetic probes.
In the city of Oxford, where he lived with his wife and where his older daughter was born, he entered the Wolfson College of the University of Oxford as a (Júnior Research Fellow).
In 1973 he left this job and refused invitations of renowned institutions so as to return to Portugal, where he joined the structural chemistry centre of Higher Technical Institute, in Lisbon. That same year he accomplished his military service (conscription), even if for a very short period, possibly due to his job and his family life. In this centre, besides holding his teaching job as a teaching assistant (1973 and 1974), he founded the Molecular Biophysics group.
In 1974 he started a long and lasting cooperation with the microbiologist Jean LeGall. The following year, he campaigned for the purchase of the first NMR spectrometer in the country, which allowed him to proceed with his structural studies of complex molecules. Two years later, he entered the New University in Lisbon (UNL) as Associate Professor of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology, and was promoted to Full Professor in 1979. On this date, he was named Molecular Scientific Director of the Structural Chemistry Centre of the Scientific Research Institute (INIC) - a job which he held until 1989.
n the USA, where he stayed for a while as a teacher and as a researcher, he was named Adjunct Full Professor of Biochemistry' o Gray Freshwater Biological Institute Institute of the University of Minnesota (1978-1984), and Adjunct Full Professor of Biochemistry of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of Georgia (1985-2000).

Besides his teaching activities, he published about 250 scientific works in the field of metal proteins and the energy transduction mechanism in microorganisms; in 1979, he organized an international conference in Tomar on Metal Ions in Biology - a landmark in Bioinorganic Chemistry, and in 1986 he founded the Biology and Chemistry Technology Institute of the New University in Lisbon (ITQB), together with Professor Carlos Portas. He was the President of the Transitory Board until 1998. He created interdisciplinary teams at this Institute, one of the first associate laboratories in the country, which would also become one of the most popular and more productive. In 1999 he dedicated full time to scientific work.
His work was officially recognised during the first years of the new millennium. In 2004 the Portuguese government included him in the group of 70 national scientists recognised by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education for "Stimulating Excellence". In December 2005 the Visão magazine named him as one of the ten Portuguese "heroes".
On 7^th May 2006 this pioneer researcher of Bio-inorganic Chemistry and one of the most brilliant Portuguese scientists died in Lisbon. He was internationally renowned, but absolutely unknown outside the scientific sphere. His body left the S. João de Deus church, in Lisbon, to the Alto de S. João cemetery.
AOn 12^th December that year, the IBMC/INEB Associate Laboratory paid posthumous homage to him. Several relevant Portuguese and international personalities participated in the event, such as Francisco Carvalho Guerra, Miguel A. De La Rosa, Helena Santos, Carlos Salgueiro, Ilídio Correia and A. Quintanilha. In 2006 the Bruker Group established the "António Xavier Prize" in recognition of his dedication to Science and his contribution to the development of the NMR methodology in Portugal. This prize is awarded to a national researcher or to a research team which stands out in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance, magnetic resonance imaging or electronic paramagnetic resonance.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2008)