GUEST SPEAKER Plenary session 1
CHAIRMAN T.5. -CBRNe crisis and emergency management, Communication, Investigation and Forensic, Education and Training
Colonel Tiago Lopes holds a Master's degree in Military Engineering from the Military Academy, a postgraduate degree in International Relations from the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, and is an effective member of the Portuguese Order of Engineers.
In addition to the regular courses that Military Engineering officers in the Portuguese Army must have, he also has the Chemical Captains Career Course, lectured in the United States of America, in 2003; the General Staff Course at the Portuguese Institute for Higher Military Studies, in 2011, and other short duration courses in the field of Nuclear, Biological, Chemical and Radiological (NBQR) at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany. He is also graduated in construction inspection from Instituto Superior Técnico.
Throughout his career, he served as Commander of Platoon and Commander of Company at Escola Prática de Engenharia. In the scope of training and teaching, he was instructor of several courses at the mentioned school. At the Military Academy, he served as field assistant to the Lieutenant General Commander and cooperated in the Studies Section during the restructuring of the Post Bologna courses. In the Army's Infrastructure Directorate, he was head of the Canter’s works delegation. He specialized in the area of NBQR Defence, having been engaged in several training actions (namely real chemical agents), training, research and development.
His international experience includes a mission in Lebanon, as Operations Officer of Engineering Unit No. 5 / UNIFIL / 2009 and three missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as Commander of Engineering Detachment in 2000, Assistant Operations at Multinational Task Force North in 2006 and LOT Coordinator at RCC4 in the second half of 2009.
Prior to his appointment as 2nd Commander of the Lisbon Firefighter Regiment in 2014, he headed the Ground Forces Command Biological and Chemical Nuclear Center and commanded the Army's Biological, Chemical and Radiological Defense Element (unit intended to support the National Authority Emergency and Civil Protection, according to DON 3). He accumulated as an Army NBQR Defense System Project manager and Army representative for Proliferation Security Initiative and Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.
In January 2019 he was appointed by the Mayor of Lisbon as Commander of the Firefighters Regiment, a position he holds.