Alexandre Andrade, geologist engineer from the Coimbra University, with complementary training at the Algarve University in the field of Safety at Work and at the Catholic University of Lisbon in Business Management.

He focused his activity in tunnels, in the exploration of aggregates and in underground mining, studying these structures in the area of geotechnics and neotectonics. He was a professor of Geology at the Algarve University. He is co-founder of Tech Salt S.A., being COO in the rock salt  mine, Campina de Cima, in Loulé.

Recently he developed projects in the area of preservation and enhancement of the mining and geological heritage.

"Geopark  Algarvensis a territory, in which we preserve the history of the Earth's evolution".

Paleontologist. Graduated from Moscow State University in 1986. PhD from the University of Lisbon where he coordinates the discipline of Paleontology. Researches the Paleobiogeography of the Mio-Pliocene Atlantic Mediterranean molluscs. He is the author of more than 150 scientific and dissemination articles published in national and international journals. He is the co-author of more than 100 new species of Miocene and Pliocene gastropods. He promotes palaeontology and geodiversity, focusing on aspects that go beyond geology, establishing bridges between the natural and social sciences.

"Diversity is a fundamental value and its conservation and enhancement is a primary objective. In the aspiring territory of Geopark Algarvensis, exceptional geodiversity, outstanding values of biodiversity and cultural diversity are combined".

She is a retired Associate Professor at the University of the Algarve, with a PhD in Geology, specialising in coastal morphology, sedimentology and landscape evolution along the Quaternary.

She carries out her research activity at the Centre for Marine and Environmental Research (CIMA), supervises master  and doctoral theses and integrates research project teams. So far, she has published numerous scientific articles and book chapters. The dissemination of the geological heritage is one of the components of her scientific activity.

"The aspiring Unesco geopark, Geopark Algarvensis, celebrates the integrated knowledge of the geological, ecological and cultural heritage".

Geologist with a specialization in geophysics, he is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

His main area of research is paleomagnetism and rock magnetism integrated with a number of other geological tools including mineralogy, sedimentology, stratigraphy and geochemistry. His research focuses on global climate change in the history of the earth, such as the Cretaceous-Tertiary crisis, and the environmental effects of major igneous provinces such as the Deccan lavas in India. More recently, he has studied the magnetic recording of speleothems in the Algarve region.

Full Professor at the University of Aveiro, since 2002, in the Department of Geosciences, he has a PhD in Geosciences (Mineralogy) with Agregate Title (Clays) by the University of Aveiro, in 1994 and 2000, respectively. He is Director of the GEOBIOTEC Research Centre, since its creation, in July 2007, and Director of the PhD Program in Geosciences since 2017.

After a brief passage (1984/85) in the private sector of public works, as an engineering geologist, he developed an academic career at the University of Aveiro from 1986 to the present. At the University of Aveiro he has been carrying out scientific activity in the field of mineral resources, coastal and marine geology, geotourism and geopatrimony, geological risks, medical geology and environmental impacts.

"The Algarve is one of the regions of Portugal with the most complete and best exposed geological record, which has therefore been the focus of attraction of many national and foreign researchers, who have developed/develop important studies of various geological disciplines (geodynamics, paleontology, stratigraphy, sedimentology, coastal and marine geology, hydrogeology and geological resources, to name but a few). It has geosites that combine appreciable beauty with a very relevant heritage significance, which it is important to preserve, in an approach of integration with other natural heritage assets".

He has a degree in History and a Master's degree in Archaeology and is a PhD finalist in the cultural heritage associated with the karst caves of the Algarve.

He started his professional activity in the then IPPAR (1996), keeping himself at the service of entities responsible for the protection of cultural heritage. He has been carrying out speleological research in Portugal since 1989 and, from 2016, also in Mozambique. He has published research in archaeology, paleontology and speleology. In 2016 he was awarded the Estácio da Veiga Prize for Archaeology and Human Evolution by ICArEHB (UAlg).

PhD in Geology from the University of Lisbon where he is Associate Professor in the Department of Geology of the Faculty of Sciences.

His scientific career has been developed in the geology of volcanic regions, mainly in the Atlantic archipelagos (Azores, Madeira, Canaries, Cape Verde and S. Tomé), but also in continental Portugal, Morocco and Brazil. Study themes include Neotectonics and Palaeosysmology, Volcanic Stratigraphy and Geological Cartography.

He is the author of about 60 articles in international scientific journals.

"In the geopark Algarvensis we can find evidence of the beginning of the opening of the Atlantic 200 million years ago".

He has a Master's degree in Economic and Applied Geology from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (1993) and a PhD from the Centre d'Hydrogéologie de l'Université de Neuchâtel. He has been a professor at the University of Algarve since 1997. He has been continuously participating in technical and scientific projects in the geosciences area for more than 30 years and has regularly oriented post-graduate training (masters and doctorates). He is the author of more than a hundred national and international publications in the field of hydrogeology and water management.

"The mesocenozoic sedimentary basin and the paleozoic rocks found in the Algarve territory present a profusion of contrasts that need to be understood by those who wish to find justification for the beauty of this region".

Associate Professor at the University of Algarve, PhD in Biology at the University of the Algarve, she has developed scientific activity and teaching in studies of plant ecophysiology under conditions of environmental stress typical of Mediterranean regions. She is curator of the Herbarium of the University of Algarve -ALGU and, within the context of these functions, has participated in various actions to promote knowledge and public awareness of environmental issues, particularly those involving the floristic heritage of the Algarve.

"The territory of the future Geopark Algarvensis boasts not only the particular geological heritage, but also an ancestral humanized landscape, a mosaic of natural history and culture, science and imagination".

Associate Professor at the Nova University of Lisbon he is dedicated to the paleontology of dinosaurs (bones, eggs and footprints) and other fossil vertebrates. He is the author or co-author of over 200 publications (book chapters, scientific papers and conference summaries). In 2009 he discovered the important paleontological deposit of Penina (Loulé) with the Metoposaurus algarvensis and phytosaurus over 200 million years old. This Geopark initiative began with his recommendation and instigation to the mayor of Loulé on 15 April 2018. He is an Associate Researcher at AMNH - American Museum of Natural History (New York) and the Lourinhã Museum.

"The Aspiring GeoPark Algarvensis comprises a territory of immense geological and paleontological value, whose high representative is the amphibian Metoposaurus algarvensis, a unique species in the world, which lived at the beginning of the dinosaur era. It is also a sustainable human development strategy based on palaeontology and other sciences. It is wonderful to be part of this initiative".

Paulo Manuel Carvalho Fernandes was born in Matosinhos in 1969. He graduated in Geology in 1994 from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto. In 2000 he took his PhD exams in Geological Sciences, specialising in Stratigraphy and Palynology, at the University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland. In 2002 he started teaching exclusively at the University of Algarve.

He is a researcher at the Centre for Marine and Environmental Research of the University of Algarve, where he carries out research in stratigraphy, sedimentology, geochemistry, palynology, organic petrology and thermochronology in Portugal, Spain and Mozambique. Founding member of the Association for the Dissemination and Defence of the Geological Heritage of Alentejo and Algarve. Within the scope of this association he has organised several annual courses for primary and secondary school teachers.

Born in Lisbon in 1959, he studied geology at the Institute of Geology and Mines of Leningrad (USSR) and at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, where he graduated in 1987. He did his Masters in Structural Geology and his PhD in Geology at Imperial College, United Kingdom.

He charted the internal structure of the Loulé salt diapir (1990) and studied the tectonic evolution of the Algarve Basin (1998).

He investigates mainly:

- marine geology of the Portuguese shore,

-the neotectonics of the Africa-Iberia plates  boundary in the Atlantic Ocean

- the alkaline magmatism of the Cretaceous of the Portuguese West Bank .

"From a geological point of view, the territory of Algarvensis comprises a registry that represents the geological history which witnesses the passage of the formation of the supercontinent Pangea, its rupture and volcanism, the appearance of the amphibians precursors of dinosaurs, the formation of lakes and saline inland seas (of the East African rift and Dead Sea type), the collision of Africa and Eurasia and the formation of the Atlantic Ocean and the opening of the Strait of Gibraltar. Of course... not everything is obvious to the eyes.... The essential is invisible to the eyes.... At first sight".

He is an Assistant Researcher at the National Laboratory of Energy and Geology (LNEG), where he is the Coordinator of the Geology, Hydrogeology and Coastal Geology Unit. He has a PhD in Internal Geodynamics - "Neotectonics of the Algarve Region" - from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon.

He has developed research in the fields of Neotectonics and Seismotectonics, especially in the Algarve region, as well as in Geological Cartography of the Cenozoic. He is co-author of several scientific papers published or presented in national and international congresses.

"The Barrocal is a natural water dam."

Stefan Rosendahl, born in 1956, geologist and PhD since 1985 in Natural Sciences (Geology and Paleontology, University of Stuttgart; thesis: The Coral Facies of the Upper Jurassic of the Algarve).

Professor in Portugal: University of Beira Interior, Escola Superior de Arte e Design of Caldas da Rainha, Instituto Politécnico of Tomar, University Lusófona of Humanities and Technologies, and Instituto Superior D. Dinis.

Currently he’s researching Geotourism, Cultural Tourism and Natural and Cultural Heritage and collaborating with the Living Science Centres of the Algarve region.

"Do you only know the beaches? The Territory Algarvensis has more to offer!"

Retired Full Professor at the University of the Algarve specialising in alteration phenomena and surface geochemistry.

He investigates the processes of sedimentary dynamics and geochemistry and the stratigraphy of the Quaternary. He coordinated the Marine and Environmental Research Centre (CIMA) for 18 years. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Brussels (VUB), Assistant Professor at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro in Vila Real and worked for the government of Guinea Bissau. He has coordinated 12 research projects. He has oriented 10 PhD theses and 18 MSc theses. He has published 65 scientific articles and 6 book chapters.

"A fascinating chronicle of natural processes of singular beauty"