Paula Vilarinho graduated in Ceramics and Glass Engineering from the University of Aveiro, Portugal in 1983 and got her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Aveiro, Portugal in 1994, in the field of Relaxor Ferroelectric Materials. Paula Vilarinho is Associate Professor at the University of Aveiro since 2000 and member of the Associate Laboratory, Centre for Research in Ceramics and Composite Materials (CICECO).

She was Visiting Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of North Carolina State University, USA, in 2001 and Visiting Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom in 2008. Her teaching activities include topics on the synthesis, processing and characterization of materials, such as Microsctructure and Interfaces, Advanced Processing Techniques, Materials Processing Technologies, 2D 3D Structures, Functional Materials, Properties of Materials, among others, for under graduate, master and doctoral studies.

She is a member of the Editorial Board of Scientific Reports (from Nature Publishing Group), Practical Metallography and International Scholarly Research Network - ISRN Ceramics. She is a member of the Portuguese, European and American Materials Research Societies and Microscopy Societies. She has been acting as referee in the selection of Portuguese and European R&D projects (European Research Council and various European States Research Agencies) as well as a frequent referee of SCI journals. She was the former President of the Portuguese Society of Microscopy (2010-2011).

Paula Vilarinho published over 260 papers, 4 book chapters, with ca. 3239 citations (h-index 31), 9 patent applications and edited 4 books. She has given over one hundred scientific and technical talks at international conferences and 86 invited talks. She has(is) supervised(ing) 18 post-docs, 21 PhD students and 32 Master students. She has been involved and coordinating more than 20 R&D projects and in more than 20 European R&D actions, networks and projects on the development and characterization of dielectric, piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials. She has been collaborating with more than 10 Portuguese R&D groups and 10 foreigner groups, within Europe and USA. She organized 6 International Scientific Meetings and 4 National and International workshops on Materials Science topics. She was distinguished with the prize “Estímulo à Excelência” (Stimulus to Excellence) in February 2007 awarded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).