João Bessa Sousa is Emeritus Professor at Department of Physics & Astronomy of Faculty of Sciences of University of Porto. His teaching and research activities span solid sate & low temperature physics, micro & nanotechnologies, transport phenomena. Degree in Electrotechnical Engineering at Univ. Porto (1957-63) and Ph.D. at Univ. Oxford, Clarendon Laboratory (1965-68; Superconductivity). More than 260 published scientific articles. Awarded with the Order Santiago Espada, one of Portugal highest civil honours; also the Prize for Scientific Excellence by the Foundation for Science and Technology (2005). Effective Member of Portuguese Academy of Sciences. Co-founder and later President of Portuguese Physical Society. Former member of NATO Research Grants Scientific Committee, of Physical Society (London), of Condensed Matter Division of European Physical Society; of Linacre & Wolfson Colleges, Oxford. Co-founder and first President of Institute of Physics of Materials of University of Porto (IFIMUP).