Sofia Figueiredo Persson completed her PhD in 2014 with a thesis on the post-Palaeolithic rock-art from Northwest Iberia. During her PhD she coordinated scientific projects that included the survey of rock art and archaeological excavations. In 2015 her PhD thesis was awarded by the Association of Portuguese Archaeologists (AAP Associação de Arqueólogos Portugueses). In the academic year of 2016/2017 she completed a Master degree in "World Heritage and Cultural Projects for Development" held by the University of Barcelona (Spain), the University of Turin (Italy) and the International Training Centre of the IOL in collaboration with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, from which she obtained the maximum grade (distinction with honour). Presently she is working as a project leader and consultant in the cultural and creative enterprise IconicTheory. In the last five years she has worked as co-Principal Investigator in the "Rock Art Open Access Repository" project, recently funded (2020) for further development by the National Agency of Science and Technology FCT with the total amount of 296.023,41 €. She has been the Technical and Scientific Coordinator of the Côa Museum and Côa Valley Archaeological Park (World heritage) in 2019-2020, coordinating a team of fifty professionals, improving the management of the museum and the archaeological park, designing a cultural program that included the dynamization of exhibition spaces and the creation of new audiences. She has been the Principal Investigator of the project "Portable rock art from Northwest Iberia: moving gestures transforming ideas" funded as a scientific contract by FCT (2019/2025), Principal Investigator of the project "Rock art of the Northwest Iberia: from gestures to meanings", funded as a Post-doc fellow by FCT (2017/2019); and head coordinator of the study of rock art in the Sabor valley (2009/2015), coordinating a team of fourteen professionals, studying over 200 open air rock art sites, over 750 decorated blocks inserted in built structures, and over 2000 engraved plaquettes from different excavation contexts (from Palaeolithic to medieval chronologies). Also within the scope of this project she was part of the leading team in the excavations at the Iron Age sites of Castelinho and Quinta de Crestelos during four years. These studies produced 233 technical and scientific reports for the Official Portuguese Department of Cultural Heritage (DGPC). She has teaching experience in different courses, being currently responsible for the curricular unit of Archaeological Heritage (Master in Cultural Heritage and Master in Archaeology, Univ. Minho) and co-responsible for Archaeological Methods and Techniques (Course of Archaeology, Univ. Minho). She has been teaching classes of European History, Artistic Currents and Research Seminars. At the moment she has 4 master students under her supervision with subjects related to Paleolithic and Iron Age rock art and Cultural Heritage Management. She has published 16 articles in journals (some Scopus indexed), 9 sections of books, 1 book and 13 national and international conference papers. Furthermore, Sofia Soares de Figueiredo collaborates with diverse cultural associations and organizations, mostly in the areas of photography and theater. She has a vast experience of public engagement activities in order to reach audiences beyond academia, such as artistic performance and curatorial work. Her main interest is to promote development through research and public diffusion of cultural and archaeological heritage.