João Carlos Rogenmoser Lourenço Fernandes was born in Lisbon on April 6, 1950, and passed away on January 15, 2005, in a car accident.

He earned his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) in 1972 and obtained the degrees of M.Phil and Ph.D. in the Department of Electronic Engineering at the University of Southampton from 1974 to 1977. He received the title of Associate Professor at IST in 1989.

Since 1970, he taught at IST, where he became a Full Professor in the field of Computer Graphics, initially in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and since its creation in 1998, in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, of which he was the President at the time of his passing.

He published over 60 scientific, technological, and educational works. He received two awards in co-authorship in the field of biomedical instrumentation.

He was one of the Founders and Director of the Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores (INESC), from its creation in 1980 until August 1997. He participated in the creation of AITEC, the first technology-based business incubator in Portugal, established in 1987 by INESC and IPE, representing INESC on the Board of Directors of AITEC from its inception until August 1997. He was deeply involved in the creation of Taguspark, a Science and Technology Park, and served on the first Board of the Conselho de Administração da Sociedade Taguspark. He was the Director of FUNDETEC from 1988 until July 1998.

He served as the Director of the Organismo Nacional de Informática (ONI) in the Ministério do Trabalho e da Solidariedade from August 1997 to May 1999. As a result of his work, he became the President of the I Instituto de Informática e Estatística da Solidariedade (IIES) in the Ministério do Trabalho e da Solidariedade from May 1999 to September 2001.

Throughout his professional career, he participated in numerous national and international committees and working groups for the evaluation of scientific, technological, and development policies.