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EDITORIAL 

Tribute to Carlos Salema

After a long and distinguished career devoted to engineering, education, and scientific research, Carlos Eduardo da Costa Salema passed away on April 25 at the age of 83.

One of the most influential figures in telecommunications engineering in Portugal, he had main technical interests in electromagnetic waves, dielectric antennas, wave propagation, and radio systems, on which he published extensively. However, unlike many of today's scholars, Professor Carlos Salema was less concerned with publishing every incremental result than with discovering meaningful insights, deeply understanding them, and placing that knowledge at the service of his students. In addition to numerous papers, essays, and technical reports, he authored six books, most of them devoted to teaching, and he continued to study and write almost until the end of his life. Indeed, he was one of those academics for whom retirement was never truly an option, being appointed Emeritus Professor and also having served as President of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences.

Beyond his academic work, Professor Carlos Salema served the country as President of JNICT (now Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), where he laid the groundwork for what would become the Portuguese scientific revolution of the 1990's. In the field of science management, he was the movement leader who founded Instituto de Telecomunicações, a research association bringing together three universities and a private telecommunications laboratory, which he led for nearly 30 years.

In recognition of his broad and impactful contributions to teaching, research, engineering, and science management, Professor Carlos Salema received numerous distinctions, including honorary doctorate degrees from two universities.

Although I had known Professor Salema since the establishment of the Instituto de Telecomunicações, we became much closer when I joined its Board of Directors. He always regarded the institute as one of his finest achievements, as it was created to serve its many researchers and students. I still remember my surprise upon joining the Board and realizing that decisions were rarely made by voting, but rather by consensus. I later understood that voting was uncommon because he recognized that, in an institution based on voluntary collaboration - where there are no real mechanisms to enforce decisions - there is little value in decisions that are not collectively embraced and therefore unlikely to be implemented. Instead, consensus was almost always sought. Moreover, when he sensed that consensus was still out of reach, he preferred to postpone decisions, understanding that the ideas had not yet fully matured. While this approach was sometimes perceived as inertia, it was in fact essential to fostering cohesion in an environment naturally marked by both institutional and individual independence.

It is also widely recognized that the growth of the Instituto de Telecomunicações - from its original four institutions to the current nine, including the establishment of delegations in Iscte, Porto, Covilhã, and Leiria - was not only a result of the expansion of higher education in Portugal, but also reflected Professor Carlos Salema's determination to promote scientific activity throughout the country. Indeed, one of the features of the institute of which he was most proud was its national reach.

Professor Salema stepped down in 2021 from his long tenure as President of the Board of Directors and of the Scientific Council of the Instituto de Telecomunicações - positions he had held since its foundation. Although this tenure exceeded what might normally be expected in a research and innovation institution, the truth is that he profoundly shaped the institute. Even today, IT largely remains a reflection of his vision of education and science, and for that, we are all deeply grateful.
 

 

José Carlos Pedro
(IT President)