Our Team

Henrique Leitão
Principal Investigator

An historian of science, with a doctorate in Physics. Presently the head of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science of the Faculty of Sciences, Universidade de Lisboa. In recent years, his research focused on the History of Early-modern Science, especially Mathematics, Astronomy, Nautical Science and Cartography.
CV; ORCID

Antonio Sánchez
Senior Researcher

Antonio Sánchez is Assistant Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the Autonomous University of Madrid. He is interested in early modern Iberian science, especially in the production of artisanal knowledge related to cosmography and maritime culture. He has several publications on these matters that can be consulted here: https://uam.academia.edu/AntonioS%C3%A1nchez."
CV; ORCID

David Salomoni
​​Post-doc researcher

He holds a BA Degree in Early Modern History and a MA Degree in Late Medieval History, both from the University of Parma. He was awarded a PhD in Education at the University of Rome III and a PhD in History at the University of Avignon. He was also awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship in History of Education at the University of Rome III and an Andrew Mellon Fellowship in History of Science at the University of Oklahoma. His research is dedicated to Medieval and Early Modern Education, with a particular focus on the teaching of science in early modern religious congregations and the global circulation of educational models.
CV; ORCID

Luana Giurgevich
​​Post-doc researcher

In 2008, she was awarded a PhD in Italian Studies at the University of Trieste, for a thesis on Travel Literature in the Adriatic area. Since 2010, she is a researcher at CIUHCT, Universidade de Lisboa. Her interests include Travel Literature, Book History and History of Libraries, with a focus on the libraries of the Portuguese religious congregations and scientific book collections. The book Clavis bibliothecarum. Catálogos e inventários de livrarias de instituições religiosas em Portugal até 1834, co-authored with Henrique Leitão and main result of her archival work, received an honorable mention of the Portuguese Academy of History (2016).
CV; ORCID

Juan Acevedo
​​Post-doc researcher

With a BA in Classics from the Universidad de Los Andes (Venezuela), Juan developed a career as a translator, publisher, and multilingual typesetter in Comparative Religion and Islamic Studies in the UK. In 2018 he got his PhD from the Warburg Institute, with a thesis on alphanumeric cosmology, drawing from sources in Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew. With the Rutter project, he is tracking and examining early Arabic sources relating to Oceanic navigation, while keeping an eye on the cosmological and epistemological aspects of 16th century maritime developments.
CV; ORCID

Nuno Vila-Santa
​​Post-doc researcher

In 2014, he was awarded a PhD in the History of the Discoveries and the Portuguese Empire at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, with a thesis on D. Luís de Ataíde, 3º earl of Atouguia and vice-roy of Portuguese India. His book on Ataíde was awarded a Portuguese History Academy Prize (2015). His research is focused on political, military, social and cultural history of the Portuguese Empire in Asia during the second half of the sixteenth century, but also in the history of the portuguese nobility. His more recent studies concern the chronicler Diogo do Couto and also a book on Francisco Barreto, governor of Portuguese India and Mutapa in the sixteenth century.
CV; ORCID

Luís Campos Ribeiro
​Researcher

Luís Campos Ribeiro has a BA and MA in Art History by the Nova University of Lisbon and is concluding his PhD on History and Philosophy of Sciences in the Faculty of Sciences of the Universidade de Lisboa. He is a member of CIUHCT, University of Lisbon and a researcher at the Astra Project. His research includes medieval and early modern history of science in the fields of astrology, astronomy and medicine, as well as medieval illuminated scientific manuscripts.
CV; ORCID

José Madruga Carvalho
​Researcher

Graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at UCP / Braga, Philosophical-Humanistic Course (1971). After being a teacher in secondary education, in the last few years his main interest has been centered on the history of calendar reforms and in particular on the history of the Easter calculation and the Gregorian Reformation of the 1582 Calendar in Portugal, under Henrique Leitão's guidance.
CV; ORCID

Fabiano Bracht
Researcher

He obtained a PhD in History at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto . His research interests include History of Medicine, Pharmacy and Natural Sciences within the construction and circulation of scientific knowledge.  Currently, he is a Researcher and Science Communication Manager at REMA - Faculty of Arts, University of Porto.

Nuno Castel-Branco
Researcher

Nuno Castel-Branco is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, Germany. He completed his PhD in the History of Science at Johns Hopkins University in May 2021. He also received an M.Sc. in Physics from the University of Lisbon (Técnico). His current research focuses on the emergence of the new sciences in seventeenth-century Europe through the career of Nicolaus Steno, an anatomist who adapted methods from mathematics, mechanics and chemistry in his research. Nuno also studies the development of jesuit science in early modern Iberia. He has won several awards in Europe and the United States, such a Fulbright Fellowship and a Huntington Exchange Fellowship.

Joana Lima
​PhD Student

Graduated in Classical Studies from the University of Lisbon, she holds a MA Degree in Portuguese Literature, a MA Degree in Teaching Portuguese and Classical Languages, and an Advanced Studies Diploma in Portuguese Literature from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Her research is dedicated to the relationship between science and literature in the context of the Portuguese Maritime Expansion.
CV; ORCID

Inês Bénard da Costa
​PhD student

Graduated in Liberal Arts and holds a master's degree in History and Philosophy of Science by the Universidade de Lisboa. Her interests focus on History of medieval Arabic Science and knowledge circulation among different scientific traditions.
ORCID

José Maria Moreno Madrid
​PhD Student

Graduated in History and master in History and Anthropology of América by the Complutense University of Madrid. His main lines of research are History of the Modern Age Cartography and History of the Portuguese Empire expansion (16th-17th centuries). Relating that interests, within the framework of the project, he will try to find out how rutters and nautical charts interacted with each other.
CV; ORCID

Carmo La Cerda
​Master student

Graduated in Liberal Arts by the University of Lisbon, she is currently doing a MA Degree in History and Philosophy of Sciences at the Faculty of Sciences of the Universidade de Lisboa. Her interests are related to the History of Science, medieval science, science and religion and science and literature.
CV; ORCID

Pê Feijó
Fellow Intern
15 June - 15 October 2021

She is a Lisbon-based writer, scholar, and militant who’s concerned with monstrosity as theory and praxis of embodied minority politics (namely crip, cuir, decolonial, and class struggles). Her MPhil in History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science, Technology and Medicine, from the University of Cambridge, focused on witchcraft and the Portuguese Inquisition. Feijó is currently doing a PhD in Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley.

Miguel Moço
Fellow Intern
15 September - 15 December 2021

Miguel Moço is a Multimedia Technician. He is interested in cultural heritage preservation and practices that ensure a broader accessibility through digital techniques.

Francisco Belo
Fellow Intern
1 October - 31 December 2021

Graduated in Molecular and Cell Biology at the Nova School of Science and Technology (FCT-NOVA), he finished his Master’s in Biomedical Sciences t the IHMT – NOVA in 2021. His main areas of interest are microbial evolution, antimicrobial resistance, entomology, and ornithology but he's fascinated by the History of Biology and Medicine and the relationship between science and religion.

Silvana Munzi
Project Manager

Biologist and PhD in Environmental Science, she held several postdoctoral fellowships at the Universidade de Lisboa, among which a Marie Curie fellowship. During her career as a researcher, she gained experience in project development and management being proponent, principal investigator, participant and supervisor of several national and international projects.​
CV; ORCID