What brought you to the USA?
To this question I will answer the same as I did to Ciência PT: “The United States of America are very strong and have an enormous tradition in the area of the History of Science and Technology. In the main schools that have Nobel Prize winners, such as Harvard, Berkley, Stanford, Los Angeles, etc, have had, and still have frontline names within the History of Science and Technology, such as for instance, George Sarton, Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, Stephen Jay Gould, Thomas Hughes and many others... These were the factors that guided my option to come to the United States of America to pursue further studying. A clear sign of good research practice and of respect for the work of a researcher in that country, was expressed in the immediate and clear reply by the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) to my request of carrying out there the project I had in mind.”

In what are you currently working on?
The work I am currently working on is related to the Chemical Industry as a whole and to the plastics industry in particular. The starting point came up from a study and analysis of the transforming industry in Portugal; as a consequence of that I started to carry out research on and to examine the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) industry in Portugal, an industry that resumed itself to the Industrial Company of synthetic resins - Companhia Industrial de Resinas Sintéticas (CIRES) -, one of the biggest industries of the Iberian Peninsula. The study has evolved and now it is centered on the impact that phthalates (additives used to make PVC soft) have on children's health via the toys they use. I am currently investigating what legal or otherwise restrictive policies there are used in the United States of America and in the European Union to control or banish the above mentioned substances and which instruments are there being used in their argumentation: if scientific if precautionary.

What conditions do you have here that you do not have in Portugal?
In the United States of America we have the opportunity to establish informal, unpretentious and simple relations with front row world figures within our field of study. People are simple, direct in their answers, in their comments and are generally very positive in their outlook. Rarely do we hear NO to an idea we present! In Portugal, on the contrary, I notice that the culture of the 'NO' is part of our day to day. It suffices to note that in order to say YES, wit start the sentence with a NO! One of the great lessons I've learned in the United States was that lecturers, researchers and students work a lot and with pleasure. And they do it because, besides their own mentality focused on respect for and understanding of the importance of science and technology, they have access to the richest sources in order to carry out their research. When I was living in the US, in Berkeley, I used to say that I would feel really bad if I did not produce, since I had access to practically all the sources I needed for my work! In Portugal, unfortunately, we still have a long way to go as far as access to sources is concerned. How many times I want a on-line paper and I'm barred from accessing it. And as far as sources in libraries, archives from companies or State institutions go I can testify to the fact that a lot of them are non-accessible or in a state of neglect...

What are your future plans?
To continue to teach, research and share my accomplishments with all. By the way, I would like to challenge PAPS to make come true something we always argue for ever since I became part of its EC: the creation of a social sciences and humanities interest group. It no longer accepted by anyone that this area of knowledge should be kept aside by the so called exact sciences! There is a need for mutual efforts that promote their inter-knowledge. Nowadays we cannot allow that scientists who do fundamental research do not dialogue with other researchers so that the results of their research are understood by everybody and not just by themselves. It would be a very good thing if the sciences and the humanities would speak to an audience of both scientists and humanists.

Why did you join PAPS?
In conversation with friends in Berkeley (in 2005), namely Pedro Vieira, a PhD student at UCB, I was made aware of PAPS existence. Pedro showed an interest in creating a PAPS nucleus in Berkeley and invited me to be part of it. From that moment onwards we started to brew ideas and from that I had the opportunity to contact Tiago Fleming Outeiro in Boston. I did not know him personally, but I knew he was a candidate to PAPS' Presidency that year. Together with students from several nuclei spread through out several States, we organized an Executive Committee that would front PAPS destinies while having always present the interests of its associates. I was for two consecutive years in PAPS' EC, having been one of the elements who organized at UCB a forum in 2006. See http://www.cienciahoje.pt/index.php?oid=20726&op=all and http://www.cienciahoje.pt/17289.