João F. Mano (CEng, PhD, DSc) is a Full Professor at the Chemistry Department of the University of Aveiro and Principal Investigator at CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials, where he founded and is directing the COMPASS research group. João F. Mano follows a broad range of research interests that includes soft matter – based biomaterials, nano/micro processing technologies, self- and directed assembly, biomimetics, cells and tissue engineering and polymer/surface chemistry. His group has been engineering biomaterials that could be used as modular structures to be used in regenerative medicine, in controlled drug release, or as in-vitro microenvironments to instruct cell behaviour.