V. Vilar was born in Miragaia, Porto, Portugal in April 1978 and finished the secondary school in 1996 at Colégio Liceal de Santa Maria de Lamas. V. Vilar graduated in Chemical Engineering by the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP), Portugal in 2001, with a final classification of 16 (0-20). He received the Engenheiro Cristiano P. Spratley award and the best student prize in chemical engineering from Fundação Engenheiro António de Almeida. V. Vilar completed the Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering at FEUP in 2006, with a scholarship from FCT. Meanwhile, he completed a post-graduation in Environmental Management in 2004 from Superior Institute of Paços de Brandão, Portugal. From May 2006 to August 2007, he was postdoctoral researcher at FEUP in the area of environmental monitoring and assessment of surface water quality. In September of 2007 he started a Postdoctoral grant in the area of solar driven advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), at FEUP and Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA), supported by FCT. As postdoctoral researcher he started his own research group in solar driven AOPs, being the principal investigator of two projects supported by industry (SOLÁGUA and FOTOSOLAR), where he was responsible for the conception and design of three pilot plants with compound parabolic collectors (CPCs), used as UV-Visible solar energy capture systems, for the treatment of water and industrial wastewaters by solar photocatalytic processes coupled with biological oxidation systems.From July 2009 until December 2013, he was hired as Assistant Researcher in LSRE-Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering Associate Laboratory LSRE/LCM, Chemical Engineering Department, FEUP, under Ciência 2008 programme for a 5-year contract. Since January 2014 (until December of 2018) he was hired as Principal Researcher in LSRE-Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering Associate Laboratory LSRE/LCM, Chemical Engineering Department, FEUP, under Investigator FCT 2013 programme for a 5-year contract. He is also since 2014 Special Visiting Researcher in the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, supported by the Ciência Sem Fronteiras Program. He is the author and co-author of more than 200 scientific publications, including 7 book chapters, 124 papers in international scientific periodicals with peer review (h index 24 and 1600 citations) and more than 100 communications in conference proceedings. His main research interests focus in environmental assessment and monitoring of surface waters and environmental friendly technologies for pollution control, particularly in the application of solar advanced oxidation processes for water and air treatment, integration of chemical and biological processes for the treatment of recalcitrant wastewaters and valorization of natural materials for separation and recovery of heavy metals, oil and grease. He has been involved in 5 international, 10 national R&D projects and 3 contracts with private companies related to the development of environmental friendly technologies for pollution control. V. Vilar completed the supervision of 10 researchers granted by projects, 15 master students, 11 Ph.D. students and 5 postdoctoral researchers. Currently, he is the supervisor of 10 Ph.D. students, 4 postdoctoral researchers and 3 researchers granted by projects. He has been doing tutorial teaching at FEUP in several course units of the integrated master in chemical engineering and environmental engineering. He was also involved in the organization of 3 international scientific conferences and other events/videos for promotion of science and technology. He is also the president of the Iberoamerican Congress on Advanced Oxidation Technologies (CIPOA).
