Got her B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Porto (1985), her M.Sc. (1986) and Ph.D. (1990) in Food Processing from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Industries Agricoles et Alimentaires, France. In 1985, she was hired by Escola Superior de Biotecnologia da Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP-ESB), where she became an Assistant Professor in 1990. in 1991, she attended a Postharvest Technology Course at the University of California Davis, U.S.A. and she pursued a postdoctoral program at the University of Florida in Gainesville, U.S.A.
At present, she is an Associate Professor and the President of the Pedagogical Council of UCP-ESB and a member of Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina. She was Coordinator of the M.Sc. course in Food Engineering at the UCP-ESB, from 2006 to 2021 and the Associate Sub-Director of the Extension of ESB in Caldas da Rainha, from 1999 to 2001.
She is responsible for and professor of several curricular units to UCP-ESB courses, namely in Engineering, and also Sustainable Production of Plant based Products: Fruits & Vegetables to the European M.Sc. course BiFTec-FOOD4S. She was in charge of the Food Engineering M.Sc. Students' Placement in Practical Training/Thesis from 2006 to 2021.
She carries out research in Food Science, Technology and Engineering and an Editorial Board Memberof Foods. Her research work was spotlighted in 2015 by Elsevier.