Rui Boaventura graduated in Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) in 1969 and joined the Department of Chemical Engineering of FEUP as Research Technician in 1972. In 1979 he moved to the research career starting as Research Assistant. Later in 1986, he obtained the PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Porto after defending a thesis on Biological Denitrification in Biofilm Reactors. He continued his research career until 2010, the year he retired as Principal Investigator. However, he remains collaborating with FEUP as co-supervisor of doctoral theses and is an integrated member of LSRE-LCM.