Nuno Crato

Nuno Paulo de Sousa Arrobas Crato, OIH (born 9 March 1952) is a Portuguese university professor, researcher, applied mathematician, economist, and writer. For many years, Crato was a researcher and professor in the United States. Back in Portugal, he taught mathematics and statistics at the ISEG/Technical University of Lisbon, while pursuing his research in stochastic models and time series. He also published many articles and participated in events of science popularization and for the history of science. In June 2011, he was appointed Minister of Education, Higher Education and Science, in the cabinet of the Portuguese Government led by Pedro Passos Coelho, serving through the end of Coelho's government in 2015. He was twice awarded a national medal from the President of the Republic, firstly as commander (2008) and lastly with the grand cross of the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator (2016), which is the highest grade given to a national figure. He has lived and worked in Lisbon, Azores, the United States and Italy.

Nuno Crato

ComIH
Minister of Education and Science
In office
21 June 2011 – 30 October 2015
PresidentAníbal Cavaco Silva
Prime MinisterPedro Passos Coelho
Preceded byIsabel Alçada (Education)
Mariano Gago (Higher Education and Science)
Succeeded byMargarida Mano
Personal details
Born (1952-03-09) 9 March 1952
Lisbon, Portugal
Political partyIndependent
Alma materTechnical University of Lisbon
University of Delaware
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionMathematician
Websitehttp://pascal.iseg.utl.pt/~ncrato/

Early years

Nuno Crato was born in Lisbon on 9 March 1952. Crato studied for a while at the Faculdade de Ciências/University of Lisbon before changing his mind and graduating in economics at the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão/Technical University of Lisbon (ISEG/UTL). In addition, he received a master's degree in mathematical methods for business management from ISEG/UTL. He completed his doctorate in applied mathematics at the University of Delaware.[1]

Academic career
Austrian and Portuguese Ministers for Science visit ESO observatory[2]

Crato taught at the University of the Azores, Stevens Institute of Technology and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.[1] Since 2000 Crato has been professor of mathematics and statistics at ISEG/UTL. He was also appointed pro-Rector of the Technical University of Lisbon.

He has several general works published in the fields of science popularization and history of science, and myriad academic works and papers in mathematics-related subfields. He has been elected three times president of the Portuguese Mathematical Society (2004-2010) and appointed president of the Taguspark science park in Oeiras Municipality, Lisbon Region. He has been a regular presence in several television programs including 4 vezes ciência for RTP and Mário Crespo's Plano Inclinado for SIC Notícias.[1]

Crato has won some scientific prizes, namely the European Mathematical Society Public Awareness of Mathematics prize in 2003, and a European Science Award in 2008.

Currently a full professor of mathematics and statistics at the Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Crato has published on the fields of time series analysis and probabilistic models, with applications in econometrics, computer algorithms, human behavior, and other topics.

Political career

In June 2011, he was appointed Minister of Education, Higher Education and Science, in the cabinet of the Portuguese Government led by Pedro Passos Coelho. During his tenure, dropout rates were substantially reduced (from 23-27% to 13.7%), retention decreased to historical low levels, and academic results improved. International evaluations TIMSS and PISA showed an improvement: from 2011/2012 to 2015, Portuguese students results raised to above OECD and IEA averages, attaining the best results ever for Portugal.

A few analysts[3] explain these advances by some of the educational measures put in place during his tenure: the development of more demanding curricula, the external evaluation of students, teachers and schools, and the creation of vocational paths. He also stressed the need for improvement of teacher's initial training.

He has no party affiliation.

After his tenure in government he returned to the University of Lisbon.

gollark: Slightly.
gollark: Interestingly, law is *below* politics and geography and languages.
gollark: I've probably mentioned this before:
gollark: The UK actually does have data on *earnings* of various graduates.
gollark: Yes, it could probably work badly and this would be gamed a lot.

References
  1. (in Portuguese) Curriculum do novo presidente do Taguspark, Jornal de Negócios
  2. "Austrian and Portuguese Ministers Visit ESO's Paranal Observatory". ESO. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
  3. "What the world can learn from the latest PISA test results". The Economist. 10 December 2016. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
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