M Amélia Santos earned her PhD at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), University of Lisboa, with Ana Lobo in 1985. She joined the department of chemical engineering of IST in 1985, where she is now professor of chemistry in the scientific area of “synthesis, molecular structure and chemical analysis”. M. A. Santos has developed her research in the Center of Structural Chemistry (IST), area of biological medicinal and environmental chemistry, specially focused on the development and evaluation of several types of new potential pharmaceutical drug candidates, including polyfunctional compounds with biomedical applications, namely as anti-neurodegenerative agents and bifunctional compounds with a metal chelating group for metalloenzyme inhibition or chelation therapy. She published more than 120 research papers and is a co-inventor on several issued patents.