IEQUALTECS

IEQUALTECS was founded in 2015 by two doctors in Physics having over 25 years of scientific research experience. It is currently composed by four people: two doctors and two master of sciences.

Board of Directors
Director-General: Miguel A. Reis
Vice Director-General: Alexandra Carvalho

Departaments
IEQUALTECS is divided in two departments, DIFIS and DECIS.

O DIFIS - Research, Training, Innovation and Services Department.
Coordinates and develops research projects (self or hired), and is responsible for training activities, research services and innovation.

Members:
Alexandra Carvalho (Director – Physics, PhD), tel: (+351)932568323
Master in: Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics or other background having an important component in
exact or natural sciences, position momentarily available for research technician.

e-mail: difis@iequaltecs.pt

O DECIS - Equipment, Commercialization, Innovation and Systems Department.
Coordinates all commercialization activities and those related to the acquisition and development of equipments and systems.

Membres:
Miguel A. Reis (Director – Physics, PhD), tel: (+351)932568321
Master in: Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics or other background having an important component in
exact or natural sciences, position momentarily available for sales and research technician.

e-mail: decis@iequaltecs.pt

A IEQUALTECS has also the assistance of the following companies and entities:

Management consultant
Inferência
IT consultant
Arte Numérica

A IEQUALTECS was founded in 2015 by Alexandra Carvalho and Miguel A. Reis, two doctors in Physics having over 25 years of scientific research experience.

Alexandra Carvalho
Is a specialist in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance methods, mainly in soft materials aplications. With a PhD in Physics granted by the Instituto Superior Técnico in 2001, Alexandra Carvalho’s core academic background integrates a Graduation in Physics from the Faculdade de Ciências of the Universidade de Lisboa, concluded in 1989, and a Master of Sciences in Physics, having a specialization area of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science, concluded in 1994, also from the Faculdade de Ciências of the Universidade de Lisboa.

Having a large professional experience in higher education teaching, the scientific research branch presents itself as an exponent of activity in the past few years, reflected on the over 120 citations of the 28 scientific articles published since 2012 (registered in Google Scholar).

Since June 2015 Alexandra Carvalho has been the Vice Director-General and the Research, Training, Innovation and Services Department Director of IEQUALTECS and colaborates with the research center CeFEMA (Center of Physics and Engineering of Adcanced Materials) of IST-ULisboa.

Between 1988 and June 2015, Alexandra Carvalho was active in the scientific research in several institutions, which include: (i) the Condensed Matter Physics Center of the Universidade de Lisboa, as a member of the Liquid Crystals and NMR (CFMC-RMN) reserach line until 2011, and (ii) the NMR Laboratory of CENIMAT/I3N/FCT-UNL as scientific manager as part of the NMR National Network between 2011 and June 2015.

Miguel A. Reis
Is a specialist in X-ray spectrometries and its aplications, mainly to environmental problems. With a PhD granted by the Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, in 2001, and registered as a PhD in Physics in the Lisbon University of Technology, Miguel A. Reis’ core academic background integrates a Graduation in Physics and Technology from the Faculdade de Ciências of the Universidade de Lisboa, concluded in 1988, and a Master of Sciences in Physics, specialized in Atomic and Molecular Physics, concluded in 1993, also from the Faculdade de Ciências of the Universidade de Lisboa.

With over 25 years of professional experience as a researcher, Miguel A. Reis has over 120 published papers, from thesis to book chapters and articles published in specialized journals, that currently account for over 2000 citations (registered in Google Scholar). He has also participated and organized conferences and seminars, participated and coordinated projects and national and international comissions, assuming particularly the following roles:

President of the National Committee for the IGBP ( International Geosphere Biosphere Program ) between 2005 and 2008, a committee he has been involved in since 1998;
President of the International Advisory Committee of the International Conference on PIXE, since September 2010.

A IEQUALTECS is a research company focused on the use of physical characterization methods, often non-destructive and non-invasive.

We design, implement and execute innovation, research and development projects (RDI) for our clients, in order to optimize processes and control and improve products, giving an added value to their activity.

We present complete high-technology solutions with small and low-cost equipments and simple metrology services.

IEQUALTECS'areas of intervention are broad, and include the food and agriculture industry in general and the fruit and vegetables industry in particular, as primary strategic areas, although many others may be addressed.

Since late 2015, IEQUALTECS has at its disposal unilateral Nuclear Magnetic Ressonance equipment (Unilateral-NMR) from the Magritek company, being their representative in Portugal as well.

Recently a UV-VIS hand held spectrometer was acquired and the first steps towards the acquisition of an hand held XRF system were taken.

Unilateral-NMR is a non-destructive and non-evasive methodology, thus having a clear advantage against the traditional processes.

The set of possible aplicationsof this methodology is very broad.

In the food and agriculture industry, the application of Unilateral-NMR presents important advantages when solving analysis problems of whole foods, inside their original package, such as:

characterization of fruit and vegetables and follow-up of their storage and maturity processes,
detection of olive oil adulteration,
loss of water in food products.

In other sectors, there are several studies that show the applicability of Unilateral-NMR in the characterization of diverse materials (polymers, gels, the state of resins used in dental treatments, dermocosmetics), in the non-destructive study of layered structures like materials belonging to the cultural heritage (murals, paintings, paper, among others), and several others.

Technically, as a brief explanation, Unilateral-NMR allows for the acquisition of spin density, relaxation times and auto-diffusion coefficients for a broad range of materials.

Spin density reflects the number of hydrogen nuclei per volume unit, indicating lack of homogeneity, empty spaces, density variations or interfaces present in the object being studied.

The longitudinal and transversal relaxation times give information on the molecular mobility inside the sample, being often related to macroscopic properties (such as organoleptic properties) of interest.