João Lourenço Marques is Associate Professor with Habilitation at the Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences of the University of Aveiro, lecturing courses in the areas of Urban and Regional Planning and Public Policy (quantitative methods and techniques to support decision making).
He received his PhD degree in Social Sciences from the University of Aveiro (European PhD), after the MsC in Innovation and Regional Development Policies, and his graduation studies in Urban and Regional Planning by the same university. He was visiting researcher in the Universities (UK) of St Andrews, Dundee and Heriot-Watt .
Currently he is integrated member of the Research Unit in Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies (GOVCOPP), coordinating the Group of Systems for Decision Support – GOVCOPP.
In the Research Group on Planning and Innovation (GETIN_UA) has been conducting and coordinating several research and projects in the fields of strategic spatial planning, decision support systems, spatial competitiveness analysis, demographic dynamics and forecast, econometric and economic models for regional development.
His current research interests are the development of tools and methodologies to support the decision-making for the public and private sectors. The application of these methodologies and tools covers various topics (housing, education, health, demography, mobility, infrastructure, employment etc.) and various territorial levels (local to national scale).
He is director of the Master in Data Science for Social Sciences and Head of the Department of Social, Political, and Territorial Sciences. Is was also member of the board of the Portuguese Association of Urban Planner (APU) and of the board of the Portuguese Regional Science Association (APDR).