Pedro Abreu received the Ciência Viva Education Prize 2022
"On the National Day for Scientific and Technological Culture, 24 November, the Ciência Viva Prize 2022 in the Education category was given to our colleague Pedro Abreu. The ceremony took place at the Pavilion of Knowledge, in Lisbon."
At the awards ceremony, Pedro Abreu recalled the invitation from João Varela to take responsibility for the outreach and participe in EPPOG (European Particle Physics Outreach Group), which eventually led to the international collaboration IPPOG, which today he co-coordinates. He also highlighted the inspiration received from Amélia Maio and Conceição Abreu, and the continuous support of the LIP secretariat and of his colleagues. At the session were present all the members of the director's board and secretariat of LIP's Lisbon branch, as well as several colleagues.
The Ciência Viva Awards are given to personalities and institutions that stand out for their exceptional merit in the promotion of scientific culture in Portugal. Each year, the representatives of the scientific institutions associated to Ciência Viva (among them LIP) vote on the proposals presented by the board of the Agency in three categories: CV Grand Prize, CV Education Prize and CV Media Prize.
Pedro Abreu is a professor at the Physics Department of Instituto Superior Técnico, researcher at LIP - Laboratory for Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics, and co-coordinator of IPPOG - International Particle Physics Outreach Group.
He has been developing his research career working in experiments at CERN and other international research infrastructures. In particular, he did his PhD working at the DELPHI experiment of CERN's acelerator LEP (located in the LHC tunnel before it became the LHC tunnel) and is currently a member of the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, the largest cosmic ray experiment in the world.
He coordinates outreach and support to education at LIP since 2003 and is responsible for the most emblematic LIP projects in this area: the International Masterclasses in Particle Physics, created within IPPOG, which in Portugal mobilize over 1500 secondary school students every year since 2005; and the CERN Portuguese Language School for Teachers, an accredited teacher training course that, in 14 editions, involved 771 teachers from the community of portuguese language countries, 448 of them from Portugal.
The Masterclasses and the Teachers' School at CERN have the support of Ciência Viva. In addition, Instituto Camões supports teachers from other Portuguese speaking countries going to the school ar CERN. Every year, Pedro also gives dozens and dozens of lectures in schools all over the country.
The Ciência Viva Grand Prize 2022 distinguished Nuno Ferrand, Biologist, full professor at the University of Porto, founder and director of CIBIO and the Associate Laboratory InBIO - Research Network in Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology. He created the series As Novas Viagens Philosophicas, shown on RTP1, and created and directed the Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Porto.
The Ciência Viva Media Prize 2022 was awarded to the weekly RTP1 news item "Minuto Verde" (Green Minute), created by the non-governmental environmental association Quercus. Since 2006, "Minuto Verde" provides to people practical advice for the protection of the environment and for a more sustainable life.
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Ciência Viva's president, Rosalia Vargas (centre) with this year's winners: Pedro Abreu, Nuno Ferrand, Sara Campos (editorial coordinator of "Minuto Verde") and Antóno José Teixeira (Information director of RTP).
Pedro Abreu with Ana Noronha, from Ciência Viva's board of directors.
