Iva Miranda Pires is associate professor with tenure at the NOVA University of Lisbon – School of Social Sciences and Humanities (NOVA FCSH); she holds a degree in Geography, from University of Coimbra and a PhD in Human Geography, from University of Lisbon. She teaches at the Sociology Department where she also coordinates the PhD program in Human Ecology. She held several positions in academic management at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, namely as Vice Deputy Director for Teaching Quality and at the Department of Sociology She is a Visiting Professor at the NOVA School of Medicine, where she teaches the History and Sociology of Food course in the Nutrition Degree. She has teaching experience at foreign universities. She is a Senior Researcher at the Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences (CICS.NOVA). She has a long experience in research and managing research projects and as a team member of projects funded by the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) and EU funded projects. She has extensive experience in supervising theses, both master's degrees and PhD (14 theses have been completed, 7 of which have been awarded grants, 5 from the Foundation for Science and Technology, 1 CAPES grant (Brazil) and a grant from a French foundation) and post-doctoral. She has several publications, including books, both as author of chapters and as editor, and articles in national and foreign journals. She actively participates in academia by presenting papers at national and international conferences, serving on the scientific committee of conferences and organizing special sessions. She has also been a lecturer and guest speaker at national and international conferences. Her main scientific areas of research are social and economic geography, human ecology, food supply chains and food waste.