Professor João Maia graduated in Technological Physics Engineering from the Technical University of Lisbon in 1992 and obtained his PhD Degree in Rheology from the University of Wales Aberystwyth in 1996. Between 1996 and September 2009 he was faculty at the University of Minho, Portugal and since October 2009 he’s been a Professor with the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering of Case Western Reserve University.

He was a Fulbright Fellow in 2007 and received the 2010 Annual Award of the British Society of Rheology and the 2011 Morand Lambla Award of the Polymer Processing Society. He was the organizer of the XVIth International Congress on Rheology held in Lisbon, Portugal in August 2012. He has authored or co-authored more than 150 papers, book chapters and patents and more than 300 conference presentations.

His main research interest is in the area of Rheological & Physical Design of Soft Matter System, in particular on the design of novel complex, multiphase polymeric systems with new, improved functionalities through multiscale modeling and blending and compounding operation, with a view to developing engineering solutions to industrially relevant polymer processing problems. He is currently the Director of CAPP – Center for Advanced Polymer Processing, of CWRU.