Helder Maiato graduated in Biochemistry and holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Porto. He was a visiting PhD student at the University of Edinburgh (UK) and a Post-doctoral Research Affiliate at the New York State Department of Health (USA). He authored 120 scientific articles in highly prestigious journals, including Science, Cell and Nature Cell Biology and received many national and international awards. At present, he is a Coordinating Investigator at IBMC and Full Professor (invited) at Faculty of Medicine at the University of Porto. His main research interest is the spatial control of cell division and coordinated projects from the European Research Council, HFSP, La caixa Foundation, among others. Between 2012-2015 he served as National Counsellor for Science and Technology to the Portuguese Prime Minister and was elected EMBO Member in 2016. In 2015 he founded Yscience, a private non-profit initiative that employs scientists to develop science education programs with young children.