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U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

Walter Osswald

Walter Osswald 1921- Doctor and university lecturer

Walter Friedrich Alfred Osswald was born in Porto on 20 September 1928.

He took his graduate degree in Medicine, at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, with a final mark of 19 out of 20. He took his PhD at the same learning institution in 1958.

The following year, he was appointed Guest Assistant at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Frankfurt and later, in 1968, he was appointed Extraordinary Professor of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, and took the post of Full Professor in 1972.

His major fields of study are Pharmacology (research on the adrenergic and cardiovascular systems), Therapeutics (clinical trials) and Bioethics (especially medical ethics and experimentation ethics).

A prominent man in the field of Medicine, Walter Osswald was also interested in other scientific and cultural areas, such as Philosophy and Law, in particular their relation with Bioethics, and is actively involved in the organization of international scientific meetings: ten editions of "Meetings on Adrenergic Mechanisms", with the support of IAC, JNICT, FCT; two satellite symposiums of international Pharmacology meetings, in Melbourne, in 1982, and in Jerusalem, in 1980; a meeting in the Institute of Advanced Studies of the NATO Scientific Council (Torre Normanna, Sicily, 1984) and two meetings organized in the scope of the Bioethics Research Centre (1997, 1999).

He was the Director of the Bioethics Institute of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP), a member of the National Ethics Council for the Life Sciences (CNECV), Director of the Pharmacology and Therapeutics Institute of the Faculty of Medicine in Porto (1988-1993), President of the Bioethics Research Centre of the UCP (1995-2000), visiting Professor at the Universities of Gand, Paris, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Kuwait, Valencia, and the President of the National Humanization Committee (MS) 1995-2000, a member and Chairman of the Working Party on the Protection of the Embryo and the Foetus – European Union (1998-2001), President of the Grünenthal Foundation (since 1999) and a member and President of the Ethics Committees (of S. João Hospital, of the Hospital Centre at Conde de Ferreira, and of S. João de Deus Hospitals, of the University of Porto).

In the scope of his academic activity, Walter Osswald has supervised 15 PhD theses and dozens of Masters Dissertations. He has presented hundreds of speeches and conferences and has received three Pfizer Awards.

At the moment, he is an Advisor at the Bioethics Institute of the UCP.

He has written 473 papers and 3 books, and has coordinated 5 collective works, which are the repository of all his informed knowledge and reveal his committed dedication to humanitarian causes.

In 2008, Walter Osswald received the title of Professor of Honoris Causa by the University of Coimbra, for his reputation as "scientist and a member of the academia, a defender of bioethical principles", and the Great Cross of the Order of St. James and the Sword, awarded by the President of the Republic, Professor Cavaco Silva, who, in the same event also awarded the Cross to Daniel Serrão and Jorge Biscaia, and honoured Luís Archer, for having introduced Bioethics in Portugal.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2009)