Filipe Vaz completed his PhD in May 2000, with a thesis entitled “Preparation and Characterization of Ti1-xSixNy Thin Films, grown by Reactive Magnetron Sputtering”. In 2012, he sat his aggregation (habilitation) exam, becoming Associate Professor with Aggregation. In March 2018, he was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Transylvanian University of Brasov, Romania. He was also awarded the Municipal Cultural Merit Medal from the Vila Nova de Famalicão City Council (his hometown) in July 2018. He has been responsible (PI or responsible at the University of Minho) for 32 research projects, corresponding to a total funding amount of nearly EUR 3 million for the University of Minho. In addition, he has been a member of the research team for 23 other research projects, corresponding to a total funding amount of almost EUR 2.5 million. He has supervised/co-supervised 7 post-docs, 15 PhD students, and 42 MSc students. His main research topics concern nanostructured thin films for protective and sensing applications, optical thin film systems, and films with Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance behaviour. He has co-authored more than 280 papers in international indexed journals (Scopus: h index of 44, >6300 citations; WoS: h index of 41, >5800 citations) and three patents. He was Vice-Dean and President of the Pedagogical Council of the School of Sciences at the University of Minho between 2010 and 2013. He was Pro-Rector of the University of Minho from 2013 to 2021.