António Dias de Figueiredo is emeritus professor of Information Systems at the University of Coimbra, where his research is devoted to IT in Learning & Education, Research Methods, Science and Technology Studies, and Philosophy of Engineering and Design. He was Vice-President for Western Europe of the Intergovernmental Informatics Program of UNESCO and member of the NATO Special Program Panel on Advanced Educational Technology. He chaired the PROMETEUS memorandum of understanding of the European Commission and the Context & Learning SIG of the European Kaleidoscope network. He was the proponent, in 1985, of the MINERVA Project, the Portuguese national computers in schools program, which he coordinated during its pilot three years. He has participated in various European projects, both as a partner and as a science advisor, and acted on various occasions as a consultant to the European Commission in matters regarding the definition of strategies for information and communications technologies in education. He has been awarded a Honoris Causa by the Portuguese Open University and the SigillumMagnum by the University of Bologna. He talked at over four hundred national and international events and authored over three hundred national and international papers.