Victor Gil

Victor Gil was born in 1939 in the village of Santana, Figueira da Foz. The son of a seamstress and a farmer, he was the best student in primary school. "I felt that responsibility, to be a good student and get good grades," he said. It was at the D. João III High School in Coimbra that his curiosity about nuclear energy was sparked, leading him to study Physical-Chemical Sciences at the University of Coimbra. During his undergraduate studies, he was invited to study nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. He received his doctorate in 1965 from the University of Sheffield, England. Back in Coimbra, in 1966 he created the first NMR spectroscopy laboratory in Portugal. He was then invited to lead the Founding Committee of the University of Aveiro, becoming its first Rector (1973-77). He was a full professor in Aveiro until returning to the University of Coimbra in 1982, retiring in 2002. He always maintained close ties with the University of Aveiro, presiding over the Ethics and Deontology Council until 2018.