Telma Costa got her PhD degree in Chemistry at the University of Coimbra, in 2009. She worked in collaboration with Lund University, CICECO (University of Aveiro), and Instituto Superior Técnico (Lisbon). In 2009, she joined the Center for Polymers & Organic Solids, at University of California Santa Barbara, for 1 year, and returned to UC in 2010, as a post-doc fellow. She did several, EU funded, short visits to MAX National Research Laboratory for Nuclear Physics and Synchrotron Radiation (Sweden), and to Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (United Kingdom). In 2010/2012 she was Invited Assistant Professor at UC. Currently, she is a Junior Researcher at the University of Coimbra. Her scientific interests cover the following research areas: i) design and characterisation of luminescent ligands capable of stabilising G-quadruplex structures in cells, acting as anticancer agents; ii) development of luminescent probes for cellular imaging; iii) energy and charge transfer processes for the development of luminescent systems for sensing applications (metals, ions, pesticides and explosives); iv) photophysics of organic conjugated polymers and v) development of organic redox active materials for redox flow batteries.