2013 Pessoa Award given to a scientist

Maria Mota, a researcher at the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine in Lisbon, is the winner of the 2013 edition of the prestigious Pessoa Prize.

The Pessoa Prize jury highlighted Maria Mota's contribution to malaria research and "her enthusiastic commitment to what can be called science citizenship," as founder and former president of the Associação Viver a Ciência (Live Science Association), which aims to encourage philanthropy in Portugal.

Maria Mota, selected in 2012 for an FCT Researcher contract, heads the Malaria Unit at the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM). With a degree in Biology from the University of Porto, she completed her PhD at University College London, where she began studying the mechanisms by which the malaria parasite, Plasmodium, infects and survives in host cells, causing this devastating disease. After a highly successful postdoctoral research period at New York University Medical Center, she returned to Portugal, to the Gulbenkian Institute of Science, before taking up her current position at IMM.

The award recognizes Maria Mota's exceptional scientific career, having published several important studies in leading scientific journals. She has received numerous national and international awards from institutions such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (USA), the European Research Council, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.