Rui Fausto is Full Professor and Head of the Chemistry Research Centre of the Department of Chemistry of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. He is also the Coordinator of the Molecular Spectroscopy and Thermodynamics Research Group, co-Coordinator of the Research Group on Theoretical and Computational Chemistry of the Coimbra Chemistry Centre and Director of the Laboratory for Molecular Cryospectroscopy and Biospectroscopy. He is member of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, American Chemical Society, and European Photochemistry Association, President of the permanent Steering Committee of the EUCMOS (European Congress on Molecular Spectroscopy) series of meetings, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Molecular Structure (Elsevier, Amsterdam). He belongs to the editorial boards of ten additional scientific journals. He is a specialist on molecular spectroscopy, quantum chemistry and solid state photochemistry. Along his career he has occupied many different positions in administration and scientific management in the University of Coimbra, including the presidency of the Academic Council and the Vice-presidency of the Scientific and Directive boards of Faculty for Sciences and Technology and the presidency of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research. He was also the President of the Physical-Chemistry Division of the Portuguese Chemical Society. In 2002 he received the RSC Journals Grant for International Authors Prize and in 2004 and 2005 he was one of the 12 Portuguese scientists awarded with the Excellence Prize of the Portuguese Science Foundation. He is author or editor of about 30 scientific books and author of ca. 400 scientific papers in peer-reviewed prestigious chemistry journals. He has been the coordinator of many national and international research projects, which as a whole collected several millions of Euros of funding, and has organized more than 50 international scientific congresses. Rui Fausto has also been acting as evaluator for many scientific international institutions, including the European Research Council and the National Science Foundation of USA. He is the Coordinator of the Directorate for High-Education of the International Observatory of Human Rights, and Honor Member of the Portugal – Latvia Association.