Prof. Miguel de Castro
Neto
Secretary
of State for Spatial Planning and Nature Conservation
Portugal

Biography
Miguel de Castro Neto was born in 1967. He has a PhD in Agronomic Engineering by the Institute of Agronomy from Technical University of Lisbon. He is a Master in Agricultural Economics from the University of ?vora and has a Master extension in Statistics and Information Management by the Institute of Statistics and Information Management, New University of Lisbon. Has a degree in Agricultural Engineering by the University of ?vora. Between 2010 and 2013 he was deputy director of the Institute of Statistics and Information Management, New University of Lisbon, where he served as Assistant Professor, with the responsibility of supervising the Master's Program in Information Management and Statistics and Information Management and coordinated the Erasmus program. Between 1992 and 1997 he joined the Department of Business Administration, University of ?vora, first as Research Trainee ( 1992-1995) and later as Research Assistant ( 1995-1997). He was a doctoral fellow of FCT (1997-2001) in the Institute of Agronomy from Technical University of Lisbon. He started and directed the company Agri - Science, Engineering Consultants, having also developed activity as a consultant in the area of systems and information and communication technologies. He was a member of the Platform for Sustainable Growth where he is the Rapporteur on Agriculture and Forestry on the Competitiveness Group. He joined the research unit Centre of Statistics and Information Management (CEGI) of the Institute of Statistics and Information Management, New University of Lisbon. His interests in the field of research include Business Intelligence, Knowledge Management and Social Computing. He is the author of several national and international communications and works in the field of information systems and technologies. He was involved in several national and international research and development projects, in the public and private sectors, in the area of systems and information technologies in the field of agriculture and natural resources. He developed several cooperation activities with portuguese speaking african countries, either as an expert or as a teacher, between 2009 and 2012. He is member of Section VII - Information Systems of the International Commission of Agricultural Engineering ? CIGR; was member of the Executive Board of the European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment (EFITA) and created the Portuguese Association for the Development of Information Technologies and Communication in Agriculture. He was president of the National College of Agricultural Engineering of the Portuguese Engineering Association, from 2005 to 2010, and member of the Board since 2010.