Rui Lourenço (1969-2024)

It is with great sadness that we announce the loss of our colleague Prof. Rui Lourenço.

Rui Pedro dos Santos Lourenço (1969-2024) graduated in Computer Engineering from the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra in 1992. He began working in the private sector (Edisoft, Textesoft), but returned to the University of Coimbra in 1998 to embark on a fruitful academic career at its Faculty of Economics. There he completed a Master's degree in Information Management (2000) and a PhD in Business Organisation and Management, specialising in Systems Sciences in Organisations (2008).

At the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra, he worked in the Management Science group, which he coordinated on several occasions. He has taught a wide range of subjects in the areas of information systems, operational research and research methods, in undergraduate, master's and doctoral programmes. He co-coordinated the PhD Programme in Management - Decision Aiding Science.

He was also a researcher at the Institute of Systems and Computer Engineering of Coimbra and later at CeBER (Centre for Business and Economics Research) of the University of Coimbra, where he was a member of the Scientific Committee and dedicated himself to the themes of Digital Transformation of Public Administration (eGovernment), Digital Democracy (eDemocracy), and transparency and accountability of Public Administration. One of his latest works (Lourenço, R. P., Government transparency: Monitoring public policy accumulation and administrative overload. Government Information Quarterly, 40(1), 101762, 2023) is an example of the importance of his research, with impact at academic level (published in a prestigious journal receiving a very high number of citations), as well as relevance to public policy. Rui Lourenço's recognised expertise in these areas led him to be appointed as a Technical Specialist in the office of the Minister of the Presidency and Administrative Modernisation (2017-2019) and to be appointed as a Member of the Coordination Team for the National Digital Skills Initiative INCoDe.2030 (2019-2020).

FEUC and CeBER send their heartfelt condolences to Rui Pedro's wife (our colleague Marta Simões) and two sons, as well as to the many friends who were fortunate enough to know him and share a little of his inexhaustible joy and generosity.

José Manuel Mendes, Director of FEUC
Luis Dias, Director of CeBER