Associate Professor with Tenure at the Institute of Education of the University of Minho, and Researcher at the Center for Research in Child Studies. Principal investigator in four research projects funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology related with the prevention and control of smoking, alcohol and other drugs. He was responsible, in Portugal, for several European projects on the same topics. He collaborated and still collaborates with international research teams in projects funded by the European Union. He coordinated a national study on the prevalence of Portuguese children exposed to environmental tobacco smoke at home and in the car, funded by the General Directorate of Health. He has a degree and a master's degree in Biology and Geology Teaching and a PhD in Science Teaching. He has published several books and dozens of scientific works related to the prevention of smoking and alcoholism, and other behaviors harmful to health in general. He was the founder of the Association for the Prevention and Treatment of Smoking in Braga, assuming the position of President of the General Assembly. He is also a Member of the Institute of Environmental Health of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon and Member of the Scientific Council of the National Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking. He has published more than ninety scientific papers and has done more than a hundred national and international communications.