Prof. Horácio Fernandes is an Assistant Professor with habilitation at the IST Physics Department and a senior researcher at IPFN, where he coordinates the activity on the tokamak ISTTOK and chairs the Experimental Physics group. His scientific interest covers fusion devices real-time operation and engineering. He also maintains regular participation in science outreach. He is currently a member of the “Technical Advisor Panel” at F4E (the European Agency for ITER) and a research coordinator in IAEA.

In 1999 he created the e-lab, the first remote laboratory at IST and one of the few in the world for education purposes, with free access and hosting nowadays more than 20 online experiments, some of them located in science centers and high schools. He is presently the vice-coordinator for the MOOC' strategy committee at IST.