Manuel Heitor graduated in 1981 in Mechanical Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico (IST, the engineering school of the Technical University of Lisbon, www.ist.utl.pt ) and carried out his studies in the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine of the University of London in the area of Fluid Mechanics and Combustion, where in 1985 he obtained his Doctorate degree. In 1986 he conducted a post-doctoral study in the University of California San Diego in the area of microgravity flame propagation.

He was appointed Assistant Professor (1986) of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of IST, Associate Professor (1991) and Full Professor (1995). He is co-editor of several books (“Combusting Flow Diagnostics”, Kluwer Acad. Publ., 1992; “Unsteady Combustion”, Kluwer Acad. Publ., 1996) and author of several scientific papers in the area of experimental combustion and related energy aspects. During the period 1990-2005 he was a member of the International Organizing Committee of the Conferences on “Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics”, http://in3.dem.ist.utl.pt/conflaser/, based on which he has co-edited several books through Springer Verlag. He was President of the Portuguese Section of the Combustion Institute during the period 1995-2002.

Manuel Heitor has served as Deputy-President of Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, for the period 1993-1998. He his co-author of “New Ideas for the University” (in portuguese), IST Press, 1998, and has published several technical papers in the area of higher education policy. His research work includes publications in the area of the management of technology and the development of engineering and innovation policies and engineering design.

Since 1995, he has been Research Fellow of the IC2 Institute, Innovation, Creativity and Capital, the University of Texas at Austin. He is member of the Advisory Board of “Technological Forecasting and Social Change” and the “Intl. Journal of Technology, Policy and Management”, where he has served as guest editor for several Special Issues. He chaired during the period 1996-2005 the Organizing Committee of the series of International Conferences on “Technology Policy and Innovation”, http://in3.dem.ist.utl.pt/confpolicy/, which were organized annualy since 1997, in Macau, Lisbon, Austin, Curitiba, Austin, Kansai and Monterey. He his co-editor of the book series on “Technology Policy and Innovation”, launched through Greenwood Publishers, Connecticut and continued through Purdue University Press. In the area of Engineering Design, he has published “The Glass Chair” (IST Press), and “Collaborative Design and learning: competence building for innovation” (Praeger books).

Manuel Heitor was the founding director of the IST´s “Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research”, http://in3.dem.ist.utl.pt/, which was awarded in 2005 by the International Association of Management of Technology, IAMOT, has one of the top 50 global centres of research on “Management of Technology”. He has launched the IST´s M.Sc. Programmes on “Engineering Policy and Management of Technology” (1998) and on “Engineering Design” (2002), as well as the “IST Design Studio”, (2002).

He was appointed in 1999 National Coordinator of the Evaluation of Research Units by the Portuguese Minister of Science and Technology, and has coordinated the evaluation of the Mechanical Engineering panel in 1996. He was co-founder in 2002 of “Globelics – the global network for the economics of learning, innovation, and competence building systems”, and has worked until 2005 as member of its Scientific Board and co-Director of the “Globelics Academy – PhD School on Systems of Innovation and Economic Development”. In 2003 he coordinated a national exhibition on “Engineering in Portugal in the 20th century”, which was awarded with the Dibner Award of the Society for the History of Technology. In
2004 he received the Research Excellence Award of the IAMOT.

Manuel Heitor has participated in several international fora on science, technology and innovation policy, and represented Portugal at the OECD in the project “Steering and Funding of Public Research” and in the “Futures Programme”. He is a member of the Science and Technology Council of the “International Risk Governance Council”, IRGC.

Manuel Heitor was appointed Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education for the Government of Portugal in March 2005.