Pedro Almeida

Pedro Almeida is an Assistant Professor with Agregação at the University of Madeira, where he leads the High Pressure Plasmas Group at Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear (IPFN). He also serves as Vice-President of the Faculty of Exact Sciences and Engineering and as a member of the IPFN Administration Board. His academic career spans roles from Scientific Initiation Fellow (2000) to Assistant Professor with Agregação (2023).

• BSc in Physics (2001, University of Madeira)
• MSc-equivalent: Provas de Aptidão Pedagógica e Capacidade Científica (2006, University of Madeira)
• PhD in Physics (2011, University of Madeira)
• Agregação (2023, University of Madeira)

Almeida’s research focuses on plasma discharges, particularly corona/streamer discharges, self-organized cathode spots, and breakdown phenomena in gases and vacuum. His work combines theoretical modeling with computational tools like COMSOL Multiphysics to study discharge stability and applications in energy systems.

His 15 most recent publications (2025-2017) emphasize numerical simulations of low-current discharges, self-organization, and electric field dynamics. Key themes include corona stability, cathode spot prevention, and validation of theoretical criteria for discharge ignition.

He has participated in research projects funded by FCT, Siemens Corporate Research, and European Union programs like COST and ERDF. Notably, he led the PlasMa project (2019-2021) as Principal Researcher and contributed to industrial modeling for high-voltage systems.