Rui Fausto is Professor at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Coimbra, and Director of the Chemistry Research Centre (Coimbra Chemistry Centre; Centro de Química de Coimbra, CQC). He is the Coordinator of the Computational Chemistry, Spectroscopy and Thermodynamics Research Group, and Head of the Laboratory of Raman Spectroscopy and Materials of the CQC. He is also Invited Professor at the Istanbul Culture University, Turkey. He is a member of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities (Paris), the American Chemical Society, and the European Photochemistry Association. He serves as the Coordinator of the Directorate for High-Education of the International Observatory of Human Rights and holds the title of Honour Member of the Portugal-Latvia Association. Rui Fausto is the President of the permanent Steering Committee of the EUCMOS (European Congress on Molecular Spectroscopy) series of meetings, and sits on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, having been the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Molecular Structure (Elsevier, Amsterdam) for over 15 years, till December 2023. Specializing in molecular spectroscopy, quantum chemistry, and solid-state photochemistry, Rui Fausto has held various administrative and scientific management positions at the University of Coimbra throughout his career. This includes the presidency of the Academic Council and the Vice-presidency of the Scientific and Directive boards of the Faculty for Sciences and Technology, and the presidency of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research. He has also served as the President of the Physical-Chemistry Division of the Portuguese Chemical Society. Rui Fausto has pioneered the use of vibrational excitation to induce chemical reactivity in organic molecules under matrix-isolation conditions, which appears as a powerful and elegant strategy for the manipulation of chemical structures. His work on both the infrared and ultraviolet induced photochemistry of reactive intermediates has opened new avenues for the understanding of the chemical reactivity of organic compounds, and his more recent work on quantum mechanical tunnelling (including heavy atom tunnelling) has been establishing new paradigms in chemical reactivity. In recognition of his contributions to photochemistry of organic molecules and of matrix-isolated reactive intermediates, he was honoured by the publication of a special issue of the journal Photochem, in 2021, and in 2002 he received the RSC Journals Grant for International Authors Prize. In 2004 and 2005, he was one of the 12 Portuguese scientists awarded the Excellence Prize of the Portuguese Science Foundation, and received the Prize ¿Excellence in Research¿, awarded by the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022 (in 2020 and 2021 the prize was nor awarded due to the Covid19 pandemics). He was also awarded the Prize ¿Teacher of the Year¿ by the Chemistry students association (Núcleo de Estudantes de Química, NEQ) in 2018. Rui Fausto has authored or edited over 30 scientific books, and published more than 500 peer-reviewed scientific papers and book chapters. He has coordinated numerous national and international research projects, securing several million Euros in funding, and has organized over 50 international scientific congresses, being a usual lecture on the most important international meetings in the fields of spectroscopy, photochemistry and quantum chemistry. He has been acting as an evaluator for various scientific international institutions, including the European Research Council and the National Science Foundation of the USA. Rui Fausto's mentoring activities have also been very intensive, having supervised more than 30 PhD Theses in Portugal and abroad, and a large number of MSc Theses, besides the supervision of more than half a hundred post-doctoral researchers.