He is a Full Professor at the School of Psychology of the University of Minho. He obtained his Ph.D. in Psychology, specializing in Educational Psychology, from the University of Porto in 1987, and underwent his Habilitation (Agregação) in Psychology at the University of Minho in 1994. During his doctoral preparation, he conducted internships at Yale University (USA) and the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). He began his teaching career as a monitor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto in 1978/79. In this Faculty, he later became President of the Board of Directors. He joined the University of Minho as an Assistant Professor in 1988. He has held various institutional positions, serving as Vice-President of the Academic Council (2000/02), Vice-Rector (2006/09) of the University of Minho, and President of the Institute of Education. He teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the fields of intelligence and learning, psychological assessment, and research methodology. He coordinates research projects and supervises a group of researchers in the domains of cognition and learning, adaptation, and academic success. Gradually, his predominant research turned to issues of access, adaptation, success, dropout, and employability of higher education students. He coordinated the ObservatoriUM of academic trajectories of UMinho students (2015/2019), with a particular focus on transitional phases and subgroups of students (non-traditional). In his research domains, he has supervised dozens of doctoral theses and as many master's theses. He is the author of several hundred works, including books, book chapters, and articles, published in Portugal and abroad, particularly in Spain and Brazil. He is the author or co-author of some tests for psychological assessment in the areas of intelligence and learning, published in Portugal, Spain, and Brazil. Focused on higher education, he is the author or co-author of scales for assessing academic expectations, adaptation, satisfaction, employability, and reasons for dropout, used notably in several Portuguese and Spanish-speaking countries. He sits on the Editorial Boards of several Psychology and Education journals, both nationally and internationally. He is a member of several national and international scientific associations, having held leadership positions in several of them. He was president of the Portuguese Psychologists Association (APPORT). A member of the Portuguese Psychologists Order, he chaired the Specialty Council for Educational Psychology. He served on the Scientific Council of the Institute of Educational Innovation (Ministry of Education). He was part of the External Evaluation Commission for Bachelor's Degree Courses in Teaching in the area of Arts and Humanities (2001/02). He was a member of the National Education Council (2002/05), where he chaired the 5th Committee. He served as a consultant to the Regional Government of Madeira in defining studies and programs aimed at identifying and supporting gifted students. He received the Scientific Merit Award from the University of Minho in 2019.