Helena Pinheiro de Melo is a Painting Conservator specialized in Easel Painting working for the National Museum of Fine Arts, In Lisbon. She had her training in Conservation - specialization in Painting - at the Escola Superior de Conservação e Restauro de Lisboa, (1989-1994), followed by a post-graduate specialization in Flemish Painting by the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique (IRPA/KIK, 1994-1995), in Brussels. She attended the first PhD in Painting Conservation available in the country and graduated suma cum laude with the maximum grade of 20/20 (Portuguese Catholic Univ. 2008-2012). She has had her Primary and Secondary education at the Lycée Français Charles Lepierre, in Lisbon (1977-1988). She was one of the founding members of the conservation firm K4-Conservação e Restauro Lda (1997-2008) where she was responsible for large-scale interventions in major Portuguese monuments on behalf of government and private cultural institutions, namely the National Museum Institute (IPM), the Portuguese Institute of Patrimony (IPPAR), the National Monuments and Buildings Directorate (DGEMN), the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Catholic Church. Many of these interventions were interdisciplinary projects of research and conservation, often supported by multi-analytical and imaging techniques, that led to peer-reviewed national publications in what could, at the time, be considered a novel approach to working practices in the field of private conservation in Portugal. Among these, she highlights the collaboration with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the José de Figueiredo laboratory for the exhibition of a painting by Amadeo Souza-Cardoso (1887-1918) where 3 superimposed compositions were discovered. The exhibition (2004) was a pioneering event in the area of Technical Art History in Portugal. From 2006-2014, she was an invited conservator by Geneva's Musée d'art et d'histoire where she was part of an international and multidisciplinary conservation team that was responsible for the main Projects of the Museum, namely: "L'Art et ses marchés: La peinture flamande et hollandaise au musée d'art et d'histoire" (2007-09); "Les volets de la cathédrale de Genève peints en 1444 par Konrad Witz" (2011-12) and "La Sabina Poppæa dévoilée" (2013-14). All projects included the conservation and restoration of the artworks; their technical and material study, conferences, publications ( 1 Catalogue Raisonné, 1 Book, 1 article) and a final exhibition in the museum. In the Musem, she participated in the current activities such as the study, conservation and restoration of paintings from the museum's collection; the reception of master students and visitors to the painting atelier; the elaboration of condition and treatments reports; the assessing of the conditions of works in transit, and she often acted as a courier for artworks on loan to international exhibitions. She further created the standard template files, still used by the Museum today, to record material and conservation data related to paintings. She has been an invited teacher in two of the major schools of Conservation in Portugal: Portugal (University Nova, 1998-2001) and Polytechnic of Tomar (2016). Since 2016, she is a research member of the HERCULES laboratory, with a FCT funded post-doc on the "Mannerist painted altarpieces (1550-1620) in the Alentejo - History, Materials and Conservation ". She did voluntary work in Portugal, Guiné Bissau and, for two years (2001-2003), in Benguela - Angola (NGO Leigos para o Desenvolvimento). In Angola, among other projects, she was responsible for the Adult Alphabetization Program of a war refugee settlement (11 000 inhabitants). The Program was awarded the National Provincial Alphabetization Award in 2002. Each annual edition had 8 classes with 2 teachers each, teaching more than 300 students/year, mostly women. Her activity and portfolio can be consulted in: URL: http://manahelena.wix.com/helenademelo