On July 14, student Nuno Espanha Torrado da Silva was awarded the degree of Doctor with distinction and unanimity by Instituto Superior Técnico. Nuno Espanha Torrado da Silva defended his doctoral thesis in the field of Electrical and Computer Engineering, entitled “Pulse generator for a scalable discharge plasma source for the AWAKE experiment”, under the supervision of Professor José Fernando Alves da Silva, faculty member at Técnico. The defense took place online.

The examination committee was chaired by Dr. Paulo José da Costa Branco, faculty member of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Técnico, and composed of Dr. Ricardo Parreira de Azambuja Fonseca, Full Professor at the School of Technology and Architecture of ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon; Dr. Maria do Rosário Alves Calado, Associate Professor (with Habilitation) at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Beira Interior; Dr. Horácio João Matos Fernandes, Associate Professor (with Habilitation) at Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon; Dr. Rui Manuel Esteves Araújo, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto; and Dr. Sónia Maria Nunes dos Santos Paulo Ferreira Pinto, Associate Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon.