Board Members
Meet the Board Chair and Board Members of the Brazil-China Science and Technology Innovation Center.
Board Chair
Yehua Huang
Yehua Huang holds a doctorate in engineering and is a professor-level senior engineer with long-standing experience in offshore oil and gas development. He has led multiple large offshore oil and gas field development projects and brings extensive technical and management experience. He has long been committed to the research, innovation, and promotion of production and development technologies for oil and gas fields, and the research projects he has led or participated in have received national and provincial scientific and technological progress awards in China. During his work in Brazil, he received the President Juscelino Kubitschek Merit Medal, the Tiradentes Medal of the State of Rio de Janeiro, and honorary citizenship of the city of Rio de Janeiro, among other honors.
Board Members
Angela Uller
Angela Uller is Director of Embrapii-Coppe, a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and a former Director of the COPPE Engineering Institute. She has also served as President of the Superior Council of the Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Faperj). She graduated in chemical engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1975, earned her master’s degree in 1976, and received her doctorate from the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Paris in 1980. She has also served as Director of the COPPETEC Foundation, Director of Technology and Innovation, and Vice Rector for Graduate Studies and Research at UFRJ.
Board Members
Segen Farid Estefen
Segen Farid Estefen is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. He currently serves as Director of the Oceanic Institute under Brazil’s Ministry of Science and Technology and as a COPPE professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He formerly served as Director of the COPPETEC Foundation at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and has also served as Dean of COPPE and Director of Technology and Innovation. His work focuses on deepwater engineering, ocean energy, and subsea technology, and he has led more than one hundred research projects covering oil, gas, and renewable energy.
Board Members
Paolo Gonçalves
Paolo Gonçalves is General Planning Manager at Petrobras and serves as a Fiscal Council Member at the Brazilian Petroleum Institute. He brings extensive experience in corporate planning, engineering coordination, and business operations, with a career spanning infrastructure, technical project delivery, and organizational management. His work combines strategic planning with cross-functional execution, supporting technical team coordination and the achievement of long-term business objectives for complex projects.
Board Members
An Chen
An Chen is a professor and doctoral supervisor at China University of Petroleum (Beijing), Chair of the Underwater Technology Committee of the International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress (ISSC), and Deputy Director of the 5th Industry-University-Research Working Committee of the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. He has led two National Natural Science Foundation of China projects. He has received the First Prize of the Science and Technology Award of the Chinese Society for Oceanography and the First Prize of the Science and Technology Progress Award of the China Institute of Navigation.