Elvira Fortunato didn't expect to win another trophy after a year in which everything went so well for her, culminating with the Horizon Impact Award 2020, the prestigious prize awarded by the EU to her Invisible project in the area of transparent electronics, which had a surprising international impact, with congratulatory messages from scientists around the world. But the cherry on the cake was still to come and was only known now, in 2021, with the awarding of the Pessoa 2020 Prize, which distinguished her "notable contribution to Portuguese scientific, technological and innovation development", as a statement from the jury chaired by Francisco Pinto Balsemão states.
At 56, the vice-rector for Research at Universidade Nova de Lisboa is a full professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology, director of the Materials Research Centre (CENIMAT) and of i3N - Institute of Nanostructures, Nanomodelling and Nanofabrication, which have some of the best laboratories in the world. And she was from 2015 to 2020 one of the seven members of the European Commission's High Level Scientific Advisory Group."