Luz Saúde : Isabel Vaz Distinguished with 'Prémio Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo'

The award 'Prémio Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo 2017', promoted by Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), was granted to Isabel Vaz, Grupo Luz Saúde CEO.

The jury - unanimously, as announced by the institution - considered 'the professional and social trajectory' of Isabel Vaz, 'from her graduation in Chemical Engineering at IST to her present position as CEO of Grupo Luz Saúde, considering as well how her example shows the multiplicity of competences acquired in the education at IST'.

The awarding jury included professors Luís Oliveira e Silva, Raquel Aires de Barros, Dora Rego Helena Geirinhas Ramos, Ana Paiva, Ana Póvoa, Isabel Sá Correia, João Ramôa Ribeiro, Maria da Graça Carvalho and José Nuno Canongia Lopes.
Isabel Vaz was distinguished in the category of Role Model. In the category of Young Alumni, the award was granted to Bárbara Fernandes Simões, 'recognizing her exemplar academic trajectory, involvement in activities inside the IST community and her notable academic progression, culminating in a Master's Thesis in Mathematics and Applications, where she developed a model with switching and renouncing options, in the context of the oil industry, obtaining the final grade of 19'.

This is the second edition of the award Prémio Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, created by IST to homage its former student and only woman leading a government in Portugal, as well as to promote her example as an impact figure in society. The winners distinguished in the 2016 edition were Maria da Graça Carvalho, former minister of Sciences and Technology, presently exercising functions in the European Committee, and Inês Godet, researcher in the area of breast cancer in John Hopkins University.