Rafael Catarino Castro is a young pharmacist, researcher and a PhD student. Throughout his academic career, he complemented his graduation with scientific research, professional practice and complementary programmes. In 2019, he finished the Integrated Master in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto with an average of 16 values. He also carried out several extracurricular internships in different areas such as community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, clinical analysis and institutional relations (ANF: Associação Nacional de Farmácias), in order to complement and consolidate the knowledge acquired during his graduation. He attended several courses, such as the business administration course for pharmacists, the marketing course for pharmacists or the course in Legal Medicine and Other Forensic Sciences. During his graduation, he was an integrated member in the research group of Nanoplatforms for Life, under the supervision of Prof. João Santos. His scientific research focused on the synthesis and characterization of quantum dots with binary and ternary composition and carbon quantum dots. These nanomaterials were applied, as combined probes (mixture of quantum dots with distinct characteristics), for the detection of analytes with environmental and pharmaceutical interest. In addition to the use of nanomaterials, his research also involved the use of vibrational spectroscopy techniques, namely NIR, MIR and Raman, coupled with chemometrics tools (multivariate data analysis) for the development of inexpensive and fast analytical techniques to be applied in the quality control of agri-food products. After the master's degree, he proceeded his research with a master researcher fellow (financed by ICETA, reference 2019-77) in the same host institution. Since 2021, he is a PhD student at LAVQ/REQUIMTE at Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto financed by a FCT grant with the reference 2020.08465.BD. His scientific research resulted in the publication of 20 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, in which 16 of them were as first author. They were published in analytical, inorganic and environmental chemistry top journals (i.e., Coord. Chem. Rev., (22.315 IF), Sens. Actuator B-Chem. (7.460 IF) and ACA., (6.558 IF)). He is an integrated member of a project entitled " FOODSENS - Transferência de Tecnologias para reduzir riscos alimentares", as PhD student which was funded by Interreg Europe (0591_FOODSENS_1_E). His scientific production also comprises 33 presentations in international and national conferences (21 oral communications and 12 posters presentations). Since 2019, he has collaborated in the laboratorial classes of the MSc in Quality Control and in Analytical, Clinical and Forensic Toxicology. Since 2021, he is also teaching in theoretical classes of Nanotherapeutics and Nanodiagnosis of the Integrated MSc in Bioengineering, branch of Molecular Biotechnology. In parallel with his academic and research career, he developed his skills in music both as a clarinet player participating in several projects, and as monitor, enhancing teamwork, organization and responsibility. He is collaborating with the press with two programs for the dissemination of science on the Vagos FM radio (entitled: Um olhar sobre ciência) and in the O Ponto newspaper (entitled: Cantinho com ciência).