Maria Constance Mendes Pinheiro

Constance Mendes Pinheiro is a Full Professor at the University of Coimbra's Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Physics. She has held leadership roles including Director of the Rómulo Science Center (2022–current) and Director of the Physics Department (2019–2023). Her academic career includes a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Oxford (2002) and degrees from the University of Coimbra. She is a member of the Scientific Council of the University of Coimbra and the Steering Committee of the COST Action CA16214 on multi-messenger physics of neutron stars.

Her research focuses on dense matter physics, neutron star structure, and quark-gluon plasma dynamics. Key areas include equation of state modeling under extreme conditions, magnetic field effects in stellar matter, and dark matter interactions with compact stars. She has led numerous grants addressing neutron star properties, supernova dynamics, and QCD phase transitions.

Recent work applies machine learning to decode neutron star observations and Bayesian methods to constrain nuclear matter parameters. Her studies explore hybrid stars, magnetized quark matter, and universality relations in compact star physics. Over 100 publications span topics like pasta phases in neutron star crusts, hyperon contributions, and gravitational wave astronomy implications.