Professor José Francisco David Ferreira was born in Montargil on the 26th February 1929, and died in Lisbon on the 7th February 2012. Coming from a large family and due to various constraints, he came to Lisbon to be raised by relatives.

The 1940’s capital of the last century saw him attending coffee gatherings, reading clandestine works, participating in small conspiracies of a young generation who wanted a new path for our country. That’s when a young David Ferreira gained a political and human awareness that would guide him throughout his life.

He attended the Camões High School between 1939 and 1946 and was a pupil of Rómulo de Carvalho. It is by the hand of this professor, following his physics classes and his advice on reading some super-curricular works, that he would make his first contacts with the scientific world and that he would continue the obligatory preparatory course conducted at the Faculty of Sciences, before being admitted in the Faculty of Medicine.

Por essa altura torna-se colega e amigo de Luís Osvaldo Dias Amado, (filho do Prof. Dias Amado ilustre assistente da Faculdade de Medicina), dando-lhe a oportunidade de posteriormente usufruir das primeiras lições de microscopia e de histologia, no laboratório particular do Professor Dias Amado e dando-lhe mais tarde acesso ao Instituto de Histologia do Prof. Augusto Celestino da Costa.

Em 1947, ingressou na Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa onde foi aluno do prestigiado físico Prof. Manuel Valadares. Após terminar a licenciatura em 1952 com a elevada classificação de 20 valores, iniciou a sua carreira de investigação médica e torna-se de imediato Assistente Voluntário de Histologia e Embriologia, da Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa, sendo contratado sucessivamente como 2º Assistente e em 1960 como 1º Assistente de Histologia e Embriologia, a convite do Prof. Celestino da Costa.

Em 1960, obtém o grau de doutor pela Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, com uma tese em Biologia Celular intitulada “A diferenciação do condrioma, aparelho de Golgi e ergastoplasma: estudo ao microscópio eletrónico”, onde se verifica o seu interesse, desde muito cedo, “pela observação de tecidos e células obtidas pela microscopia eletrónica”.

In 1958, the first electron microscope was unveiled at the Institute of Histology and Embryology, at the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon.

Upon returning to Portugal in the 1960s, after being a fellow of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in the USA, he began a close collaboration with this institution in the creation of the Biology Centre and subsequently held various positions there.

Professor David Ferreira held several academic titles at the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon such as: Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor and Honorary Doctorate from the University of Rio de Janeiro.

He also interned numerous times abroad. Between 1954 and 1962, he was a fellow of IAC (the Institute of High Culture) and obtained a scholarship from the French government that allowed him to complete his training.

In addition to completing the National Institutes of Health Guest Visiting Internship, Visiting Research Scientist National Cancer Institute NIH in Bethesda, he interned at the prestigious Recherches sur le Cancer Institut / Gustave-Roussy – Villejuif (Paris), founded in 1926 and considered the pioneering centre for cancer research in Europe.

In the laboratory of this institute he meets Karin Hildur Lindmark, a young Swedish woman, who was interning as a microscopy specialised technician. She would become his wife, his assistant and collaborator of many works he later published.

On behalf of the FMUL, he conducted several study visits, among them are: the Synthese Atomique (Ivry) Lab, Pathologischen Institut des Medicineschen Academie (Dusseldorf), Anatomiska Inst. (Gotenburgo), Rockefeller Institute (New York), Sloan-Kattering Inst. (New York), Harvard University (Boston), Armed Forces Inst. of Pathology (Washington)

He has held numerous prominent positions throughout his career such as:

– Member of the Installing Committee of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Biology Centre;

– Director of the Cellular Biology Laboratory and of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Biology Centre;

– Member of the Board of the Gulbenkian Institute of Science;

– Member of the Pedagogical Council of the Faculty of Medicine;

– Director of the Institute of Histology and Embryology of the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon;

– President of the Representatives Assembly;

– Member of the Coordinating Committee of the Scientific Council;

– Coordinator of GAPIC at the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon;

– Director of the Anatomy Institute of the FMUL;

– Vice Chancellor of the University of Lisbon.

He was also an Invited Professor in several Courses held at the following institutions:

– Advanced Studies in Oeiras;

– Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – Institute of Biophysics;

– University of Luanda;

– Guanabara State University;

– Complutense University of Madrid;

– University of S. Paulo;

– III International School of Electron Microscopy (Oeiras);

– Universidade Nova de Lisboa – Biological Engineering Course.

He held various positions and was a member of many national and international Scientific Societies such as:

President of the Portuguese Society of Electron Microscopy as well as
Partner and President of the Portuguese Society of Biology

He was also a member of: Portuguese Society of Natural Sciences; Portuguese Anatomical Society; Portuguese Society of Endocrinology; from the Portuguese Academy of Medicine; American Society for Cell Biology; Société Française de Microscopie Electronique; Royal Microscopical Society; Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science; European Cell Biology Organisation; Centre Royammont pour la Science de L’Homme; Ibero-American Society of Cellular Biology

He was also involved in numerous activities, namely:

– Member of INIC Health Advisory Council;

– Member of the Scientific Committee of the University of Lisbon Senate
Member of the National Education Council;

– Member of the National Council of Ethics for Life Sciences
National Delegate at the OECD (Biotechnology);

– National Delegate of the European Commission for Health Science and Biotechnology;

– Member of the Permanent Committee of the Medical Research Council of the European Science Foundation.

GAPIC (Support Office for the Promotion of Scientific Research)

Professor David Ferreira noticed the unsatisfactory scientific research carried out at the FMUL at that time due to various factors, namely, scarce human and material resources and lack of a functioning organisation and supporting infrastructures. That’s when he made a number of suggestions in order to shift the paradigm and revitalise the development of scientific research at the FMUL.

It was on 11 July 1989, precisely 3 decades ago, that the Organising Committee of the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon unanimously approved the creation of a Support Office for the Promotion of Scientific Research (GAPIC), with a view to promote and coordinate scientific research.

Years later, in order to encourage undergraduate students to practice scientific research, and also to honour Professor David Ferreira (mentor of the creation of GAPIC), the GAPIC David Ferreira Award was created in 2017. It aims to “reward the best Graduation Projects/Integrated Master’s Thesis in Medicine at the FMUL, in order for the undergraduate students to obtain a pioneering experience in scientific research”.

Aware of the enormous relevance of “imagiology in the practice of research in biomedical sciences” and as a specialist in Cellular Biology, Histology and Embryology, Professor David Ferreira published several books and articles in both foreign and Portuguese specialised magazines (some with the collaboration of Professors Carmo Fonseca, his former student, and C. Planche). Among them are “A Medicina Contemporânea” and “Jornal da Sociedade de Ciências Médicas de Lisboa”, both beginning their publications at the end of the 19th century.

However, his interests were not solely confined to research or molecular medicine, but also to the history of medicine in 20th century Portugal. He sought to leave for future memory works on Portuguese doctors with whom he had the opportunity to collaborate, such as Celestino da Costa, Xavier Mourato or Dias Amado.

He received many awards including the Pfizer Award which he was awarded several times. In 1999, the year of his retirement, he received the Gran-Cruz da Ordem de Instrução Pública award from President Jorge Sampaio, for his outstanding service to the cause of education.

Professor José David Ferreira is considered one of the greatest scientists and researchers of the 20th century in Portugal in the area of Morphological Sciences, especially in regards to Histology where he sought to “develop the integration between the different domains of normal morphology, within a large Department of Morphological Sciences” by establishing the modernisation of the Anatomy Institute.

He was considered an unquestionable leader, tolerant, of great simplicity, sensitivity and human dimension. A willful man always with various projects, seeking to cover the most varied areas of knowledge beyond his professional training.

Bibliographic References:

FMUL Bulletin, II Series, no. 2, October 1990, pages 1-2

http://newsletter.fct.pt/arquivo-de-ciencia-e-tecnologia-9/

http://news.medicina.ulisboa.pt/2017/01/24/dia-da-investigacao-com-novo-formato-tem-impato-positivo-na-fmul/

http://news.medicina.ulisboa.pt/2018/05/17/premio-gapic-david-ferreira-candidaturas-ate-30-set/

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:-RWiBtYU4-IJ:jfdf.pt/index.php/documentacao/entrevistas-projecto/36-documentacao/entrevistas-projecto/356-entrevista-com-karin-hildur-lindmark-david-ferreira+&cd=1&hl=pt-PT&ct=clnk&gl=pt

Lurdes Barata

Library and Information Area

Editorial Team