12-11-2021
On November 10th, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa awarded, with the title of Professor Emeritus, Luís Moniz Pereira, professor and researcher at the Department of Computer Science and NOVA LINCS of the NOVA School of Science and Technology, making him the first teacher at the school with this title. The ceremony took place during the celebration of NOVA Day.
The title of Professor Emeritus is granted by Universidade NOVA de Lisboa in an exceptional way to full professors, or retired professors whose contribution to the activity of its organic unit is recognized as having an especially relevant merit.
Luís Moniz Pereira is, according to the Rector, «a reference in Portugal in the field of Information Technology and in particular in Artificial Intelligence, having been the main responsible for the launch of scientific research in this area in our country. Awarded with the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Dresden, his works are of great notoriety and his interest in AI from an early age led him to become interested in Mathematical Logic, which he promoted as an essential tool for the computational automation of reasoning. He contributed to the implementation of the Prolog language, having established himself as one of its founding fathers worldwide, recognized internationally with awards and distinctions».
The Rector also highlights that «in addition to his intense academic activity, Professor Moniz Pereira was the founder of the Portuguese Association of Artificial Intelligence and, taking into account the growing number of Artificial Intelligence applications, he has developed an innovative interdisciplinary work in computational modeling contributing for its national and international reference status».
Virgílio Cruz Machado, Dean of the NOVA School of Science and Technology , adds “Tireless and curious, Luís Moniz Pereira has always been a force of creativity and innovation, with a remarkable scientific and academic production capacity.”
The proposal for the attribution of the title came from the Department of Computer Science of the NOVA School of Science and Technology and was unanimously approved by the College of Deans on March 18, 2021.
The now Professor Emeritus has recently launched the book “Máquinas Éticas” (Ethical Machines), co-authored with António Lopes, whose presentation took place on the 27th of October in the Senate Room of the Rectory of the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa.
