Armando Policarpo (1935-2021)
"With great sadness we learned of the passing of our colleague and friend Armando Policarpo, one of the founders of LIP. His attitude, in science and in society, greatly influenced those who had the privilege of surrounding him. "
Armando Policarpo had a remarkable scientific career. “A prestigious researcher, he was an outstanding personality in the Department of Physics at the University of Coimbra and in Experimental Physics in Portugal in the second half of the 20th century. His attitude, in science and in society, greatly influenced those who had the privilege of surrounding him ”, stresses Rui Ferreira Marques, Director of LIP and Full Professor at the Department of Physics of the University of Coimbra.
Already in the decades of 1960/70, the group of Physics of Radiation Detectors in Coimbra had a strong international impact, under the leadership of Armando Policarpo. Particularly important were the relations with the Manchester group (where he concluded his PhD in 1965) and with the groups of Georges Charpak and Fabio Sauli. Armando Policarpo was part of the Charpak group at CERN, contributing significantly to the development of high precision multi-wire chambers. Charpak's work was recognized with the 1992 Nobel Prize for Physics, and he cited Policarpo's works n his speech.
Armando Policarpo was one of the founders of LIP. In the words of Mário Pimenta, president of LIP and full professor at IST, “In 1985, when José Mariano Gago promoted Portugal's accession to CERN and the creation of LIP, Armando Policarpo was decisive, by associating his enormous scientific and academic prestige to the project. Thanks to him, LIP was created with a national character, which it always preserved and developrd. Without it, our history would have been very different." Armando Policarpo has been an active researcher and director of LIP for more than two decades. With him, LIP-Coimbra inherited a long tradition in the development of gas detectors and participated since the early years in several CERN projects.
Thank you very much, Professor Armando Policarpo!
Armando Policarpo received the Order of Santiago de Espada from the President of the Republic in 2006 and the Medal of Scientific Merit for his career from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education in 2017.
Celebrations of the 25 year of LIP, Coimbra, 2011
Group photo of the founders in the 20 years of LIP, Lisbon, 2006 (photo: P. Bordalo)
"Jornadas" LIP, 2005 (photo: P. Bordalo)
A. Policarpo (on the right) with G. Charpak and C. Conde, Conímbriga, 1975
