Dr. Fernando A.L. Pacheco was born in 1967 in Mozambique. He holds a B.Sc. in Engineering Geology (1991) from the Coimbra University (Portugal), with an ERASMUS student specialization in Geochemistry (1991) from the Utrecht University (The Netherlands); a M.Sc. in Geosciences, with a specialization in Environment and Territory Management (1996) from the Coimbra University (Portugal); a Ph.D. degree in Hydrogeology (2001) from the Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro University – UTAD (Portugal); and an Habilitation title in Environmental Geochemistry (2011) from the UTAD. He is currently an Associate Professor of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geochemistry at the UTAD. He headed the Geology Department between 2013 and 2021 and was scientific advisor of the Life and Environment Sciences School of UTAD between 2017 and 2021. He joined the Vila Real Chemistry Research Centre in 2005, where He still develops most of his research, but He also collaborates with various Brazilian Research Groups, namely the POLUS - Land Use Policy group from the São Paulo State University (UNESP). He published over 100 research papers in International journals, co-authored by near 120 scientists of a various nationalities (Portugal, The Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Spain), and participated in many and integrated the organizing and scientific committees of a number of national and international conferences and seminars.