Joao Soares, PhD, is a senior post-doc researcher in GECAD (ISEP/P.Porto), who earned his doctorate in 2017 at UTAD. Since his Ph.D. he successfully got funding in 2018 through FCT projects, including CENERGETIC as PI and BENEFICE as co-PI, as well as a highly-competitive junior researcher CEECIND position in 2018 and an auxiliary researcher positionin 2022. CENERGETIC has allowed him to reach international collaboration, establish partnerships and get managerial experience. This included direct research projects with international entities such as Sao Paulo State University (UNESP). In this context, a long-term international collaboration emerged with Capes-PrInt-UNESP network on the topic of “Operation and planning of electrical energy systems with the presence of renewable generation and electric vehicles”. His works gained visibility and captured the interest of other international institutes to establish partnerships and develop research projects, including Honda Research Institute Europe, the primary innovation hub for artificial intelligence in the automotive industry, which allowed him to gain more insights into the potential industrial application of his research. Additionally, CHARUSAT (India) and Centrale Lille (France) have been working close with Dr. Joao in research activities as a fruit of his international visibility, such as international algorithm competitions. In fact his position at Centrale de Lille as a visiting professor since 2019 further enriched his practical understanding of research and teaching activities at an international level. In total he participated in 28 national/international projects (9 as PI, 2 as Co-PI and 17 as researcher), including Horizon/H2020s. As the PI of CENERGETIC, he achieved scientific breakthroughs in energy resource management, focusing on local energy markets and electric vehicles. He recently secured 4 private contracts as PI for R&D projects related to energy communities and electric vehicles. In BENEFICE he focused in addressing smart building optimization and flexible power contracts. More recently, he led a FCT-CAPES mobility project focused on metaheuristics applications between ISEP and UNESP. In 2023, he started co-coordinating SAtCOMM (Interreg Atlantic Area) to deliver sustainable Atlantic energy communities Those projects have enabled Dr. Joao to manage a team of 7 researchers over the last 5 years, with supervision of national and international students, including 6 PhD (4 ongoing), 23 MSc, 23 BSc degrees and ERASMUS students. His efforts are reflected in the publication of over 200 scientific articles, 102 of which have been published since 2019. These contributions have garnered since 2009 over 5000 citations with h-index 39. Additionally, he has actively contributed to the scientific community through editorial roles, launching 16 special issue editions as co-editor in JCR journals and reviewing over 350 scientific papers. Joao has actively contributed to knowledge dissemination with 27 invitations to deliver talks and tutorials at international conferences, panel sessions in IEEE PES-GM, and other industry-related events. He has also played a key role in organizing more than 30 events, including special sessions, international competitions, and workshops. His achievements have been recognized with various awards, prizes, and memberships, including his recent appointment as the chair of IEEE ISATC Task Force on Computational Intelligence for the Energy Domain and Secretary of the IEEE PES Intelligent Systems Subcommittee. Beyond research, he actively participated in teaching activities in postgraduate and master courses at ISEP (Portugal), UNESP, and Centrale de Lille as an invited professor, covering topics such as electric mobility, energy storage, and smart grids. He has been instrumental in motivating and attracting students to pursue research activity. Dr. Joao has contributed to 12 MSc and 7 PhD jury participation in Australia and Brazil.