Biography

Full Professor. Faculty of Science and Technology. University of Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.

Valedictory Report

Now that my sabbatical year at IMDEA Networks Institute is fast approaching its end, I should be speaking of the outstanding quality of the research being carried out here, according to the highest international standards, which makes IMDEA Networks a top‐notch research institution. I could also speak of its excellent facilities and resources, its great scientific and technical culture and, last but not least, its extraordinary strategic management and vision. All that, and more, would only be fair, to say the least. But what impressed me more than everything else were the fantastic people that turn IMDEA Networks into an amazing, humanly rich community.

The enormous variety of origins and nationalities of IMDEA Networks’ PhD students is one of the more striking aspects of this research institute. At this juncture, I’d like to say a word to its many PhD students, which are an essential part of IMDEA Networks because they represent both the present and the future. To current PhD students, I’d like to say that you are very lucky to be here and you should make the most of it. To future PhD student candidates, I’d like to advise you not to hesitate to apply because that will be your first step to a brilliant future.

And now I’d like to finish with a more personal note. Here, at IMDEA Networks, I’ve made many friends, apart from the ones whom I have the privilege of knowing for many years now. I’ve made them among enthusiastic supervisors, post‐docs, and PhD students, as well as among competent, dependable and dedicated staff. Of course I will miss IMDEA Networks as a fantastic research institution, although I’m sure opportunities to come back will arise in the future, but, above all, I will not forget the friends I’ve made here, who welcomed me so warmly on my arrival in September 2015, who have treated me so kindly throughout the year, and whom I’m sure I will shortly be missing when I get back home, by the end of July 2016.

Thank you for the many moments of happiness you gave me! Those will be the only things I will truly carry away with me, irrespectively of where I go, and that give meaning to the famous sentence by the Greek philosopher Bias of Priene “omnia mea mecum porto”.