Dr Paulo Vaz Serra

Biography

Paulo Vaz Serra is a Senior Lecturer in Construction Management within the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. He is a civil engineer with over twenty years’ experience in commercial, industrial, institutional and domestic construction as a senior construction manager and as a senior project manager. He has also held executive, operative and R&D responsibilities in one of the largest construction companies in Portugal, and has been involved with international humanitarian projects.

Paulo has a Master’s degree in Construction and a PhD in Civil Engineering that focused on knowledge management within construction companies.

While he maintains an interest in issues involving construction procurement, the mainstay of his research concerns the factors affecting communication and knowledge-transfer processes in the AEC sector. As an expert in knowledge management in construction, Paulo was the project coordinator for a major industrial research and development effort on the implementation of knowledge management systems in Portuguese construction companies. This involved multiple contractors, two universities, the Portuguese Government and the European Community. The project was selected for awards and public presentations across Europe.

His work to date has resulted in the publication of a number of industry reports and papers in conferences and Portuguese magazines.

Between 2006 and 2008 Paulo taught various subjects at FUNDEC, a training body for construction professionals. He has also been an invited lecturer at the Portuguese Institute of Science and Technology of Leiria, where he lectured on construction planning and safety as well as environmental systems in Civil Engineering.

Paulo is a Senior Member of the Portuguese Engineers Organization, and a Chartered Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE). He has acted as professional supervisor for several young engineers and supervised Masters Theses in the area of Construction Management.