Obituary Viriato Semião
It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden passing of Viriato Semião on January 31, 2025. His death has left an irreplaceable void in our professional community, where his contributions, mentorship, and leadership have had a lasting impact.Viriato was a distinguished professor for mechanical engineering at Instituto Técnico Lisboa with a strong focus on experimental and computational fluid mechanics. Inspired by the excellent research in membrane separations at IST, Viriato developed a passion for membranes, and the fluid dynamic analysis and optimization of membrane modules in particular. Viriato has always been known for his exceptional intellect, dedication, and unwavering professionalism. His work was marked by a pursuit of excellence, continuously inspiring those around him. With quiet strength and thoughtful guidance, he played a pivotal role in numerous successful research projects. Whether leading teams through complex challenges or offering support to colleagues, he instilled confidence and respect.Despite his many accomplishments, Viriato led with humility, focusing on the success of his colleagues and the betterment of the work. His ability to nurture talent, share knowledge, and foster collaboration earned deep respect from all who worked with him. During the first project year of BioMembrOS, Viriato not only actively contributed his exceptional expertise in fluid dynamics and mass transfer to the progress of our research – he also challenged our concepts by raising the right questions at the right time. And with his scientific expertise and experience, he always had a solution or an idea at hand – mentoring, inspiring and guiding our younger researchers.His sudden passing has left us heartbroken. Viriato’s legacy of excellence, integrity, and kindness will continue to inspire us. He was a colleague, mentor, and friend whose influence will never be forgotten. Our thoughts are with his family.Rest in peace, Viriato. You will be deeply missed.