José Roberto de Marca

Roberto received his degree in Electrical Engineering from the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro. He worked one year in the data communications department of EMBRATEL, then the government owned long-distance carrier. He then received Fulbright Scholarship for graduate studies at the University of Southern California, where he earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering. Since 1978 Prof. de Marca has been on the faculty of the Catholic University, Rio de Janeiro, having held several leadership positions including Associate Academic Vice President, Director of Development and Vice-Dean of Science and Engineering Center. Throughout his career Roberto built an extensive international experience enjoying appointments in universities and industrial laboratories in different countries. Twice on leave he served as Scientific Consultant with AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill. In 2008 he was a Visiting Professor with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He also held a Guest Scientist appointment with NEC Network Research Laboratories in Heidelberg, Germany. His technical activities at Bell Labs and NEC resulted in patents in the area of mobile communications.

Earlier in his career he was also a Visiting Professor at the Politecnico di Torino, Italy, and a visiting scholar at UCLA, University of Toronto and Telecom Paris.

As Scientific Director of the Brazilian National Research Council, managing a 300 million dollar research funding program, Dr. de Marca authorized the startup money for the national research network that led the way to the widespread use of Internet in Brazil. He was a delegate to several ITU meetings where the wireless 3G specifications were developed and chaired one of the working groups. Recently, he served three years as a member of the presidential advisory committee of Finep, the largest Brazilian funding agency/bank for research and innovation.