Elvira Fortunato

A multi-award-winning researcher and Director of the Materials Research Centre (Cenimat) of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Elvira Fortunato pioneered the Paper-e® concept, which is based on the discovery that paper can be a functional part of electronic devices. In the future we might see self-updating business cards and price tags, animated paper billboards and electronic newspapers. Elvira Fortunato is now onto “Invisible”, a project that secured her a 2008 Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. Using zinc oxide, a transparent ceramic already used in industrial applications, her lab aims at producing a new generation of transistors – transparent, flexible and as thin as paper. The resulting electronic components generate less waste and heat and are cheaper, faster and more resistant than their traditional counterparts.