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It is with great pleasure that I take part in the commemorations of the centenary of the Higher Technical Institute, an institution that has left deep impressions in the graduation of successive generations of engineers and has inestimably contributed towards the development of Portugal and for the progress in the living conditions of the Portuguese.

In all the areas of learning where it is placed, from Engineering, Science and Technology until, more recently, Architecture, it has left a distinctive marker of the quality of its teaching and of its cultural requirements.

Great figures of engineering graduated from the Higher Technical Institute that, in Portugal and in many places throughout the Universe, built work that changed people’s lives and the design of cities and territories.

And it is also here, nowadays, that advances are made in the fields of the most recent areas of knowledge, such as nanotechnology, computing and biotechnologies.

We are living at a time when scientific research advances in areas which previously were only broached by intuition, in which progress leads to such swift changes that serious adaptation challenges are placed on society, and in which the new and complex issues that emerge in the global economy place increased demands on science and its application.

Foreseeing how the human species will react to the pressures that will surely multiply and accumulate throughout this century is a task that challenges the imagination and intelligence, however much technological development may occur.

It is in this context that IST celebrates its 100 years, proud of its past and projecting itself into the future, a link that places it, without any doubt, in the framework of full modernity. For this reason we trust that it will fully participate in the answers the Country requires.

It is not so much the past that we are celebrating here today, but a course, a long, persistent and very successful course that rode the winds of History, that faced the shocks of society and that knew how to act in the face of the bewilderments that the crossroads of development so often, and so harshly, gave rise to.

IST has this marker in its “genetic code”, the preservation of its identity as a learning and pioneering scientific research institution in the fields of engineering, a symbol of prestige and quality that carried the name of the institution far off our borders.

In its fields of activity, it structured knowledge, cleaved horizons and procured skills and talents, and was also one of the first higher education institutions to send its lecturers and teachers to attend postgraduate courses abroad and to achieve high qualifications in internationally renowned universities.

The opening of the Higher Technical Institute to the World and the growing relevance of internationalization activities are well patented with the presence, in this ceremony, of many guests from international institutes, whom I very warmly greet.

This opening to the exterior and its will to absorb and disclose what may be learnt from the better qualified is a part of its founding matrix.

Its first lecturers were, anyway, professors of the greatest engineering schools of the time, called to Portugal to lay the foundations of the school of engineering in the most modern moulds that could then be wished for.

This founding vision for ever marked the identity of this institution.

This is a school in respect of which may be asserted that it changed the lives of many young people. To be a “student of the Technical Institute” or a “lecturer in IST” was a real letter of recommendation, which brought as much prestige as it did responsibility.

To be accepted in the IST was a glory that many young people aspired to throughout the century. It was an objective that deserved all kinds of sacrifices.

Many youngsters of humble origins managed, meanwhile, to pass through the doors of IST due to their merit, and many of them achieved very relevant roles in different areas of national life.

An interesting component and deeply revealing of the wide training that was provided here is the fact that many engineers from the Technical Institute developed their professional activities in the areas of politics and particularly in education, but also in the entrepreneurial and economic fields.

This multifaceted capability corresponds to the more ambitious notion of education and training, which includes not only acquiring technical and scientific knowledge, but also the development of the capacity for forming relationships, of achieving a critical sense, of interest in learning and of a permanent curiosity.

Nationally, IST is associated to all the large undertakings that cleaved the paths of modernity during the last century, as is anyway included in the exhibition that is a part of these commemorations.

These undertakings and the vision of the future that is their characteristic are linked to great names of this institution and of the Country, from which stand out those of Alfredo Bensaúde and Duarte Pacheco, for whom History reserved a privileged position.

The opening that IST has known how to materialize relative to the entrepreneurial world and society should also be emphasized, through promoting the entrepreneurial culture that must become an integral part of our higher education.

Portugal requires that the rhythm and the intensity of the interaction between the universities and the corporations, the transfer of knowledge, and international cooperation as well, continue growing, thus becoming an acquired and permanent culture. Only thus will it be possible to apply knowledge and exploit the commercial value of the advances recorded in R&D.

In effect, the idea of separation between scientists and citizens has long since been overtaken. Scientific culture is today a fundamental issue for democratic societies, since citizens are more than ever called upon to participate in decisions where scientific and technical knowledge are intrinsically involved.

Consider the public discussions concerning the opportunity, the advantages and the construction costs of a bridge, a high speed railway, a power plant or even the architectural options for certain locations. Or the fiery debates that involve environmental issues, biotechnology matters or the doubts and fears of the surprising progresses in information technologies.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I wish, on this occasion, to address a very special word to the young people that chose this institution, at once centenary and a symbol of the future, to achieve their higher education.

Whatever the difficulties you may come to experience, there is a value that will always be together with you and be of service to you: the inestimable value of what you learnt here and of the greater capability to learn, to be different, to view reality with the eyes and the knowledge of who knows how to act in its face.

A university course is quite a lot, but it is, above all, a starting point; it is not an objective that, once reached, will achieve the miracle of personal and professional self fulfilment. The return will depend upon your capacity to open up paths to the future, such as was achieved by generations of engineers, scientists and architects that preceded you in this institution that today is yours.

Global competition can only become more emphasized. Millions of new graduates arrive in the market nowadays, not just from Europe, but from China, India or Brazil, for instance, and much of the highest level research work is today carried out in those countries.

It is not just the educational systems that have to provide answers to these changes. The students themselves have to be acutely conscious that this is an area in which a new and fierce competition is being developed. Jobs awaiting those that leave universities, even for the best, have long been unavailable.

A strong technical preparation, allied to a creative intelligence, motivation for action and taste for initiative are, more than ever, essential components to conquer your place in the world.

I know you are well aware of this, and I know that IST may, one day, become proud of you, such as it is now proud of thousands of its former alumni, that so greatly brightened, past and present, the name of the institution.

An institution that celebrates 100 years knows the value of time. Knows that there is no time to be lost, under pain of being lost in time.

Only those that keep in step with time can become projected into the future and settle there. As was always done by and, of that I am certain, will continue to do so in the future, the Higher Technical Institute.

As a public recognition of the work and merit shown throughout a century at the service of education and of development in Portugal, I decided to award the Higher Technical Institute the title of Honorary Member of the Military Order of Sant’iago da Espada, the insignia of which I shall have the pleasure to deliver to its President, Prof. Cruz Serra.

I do so in full justice and confirming the exalted demand and expectations that this decoration interprets for whoever receives it. It is certainly in very able hands.

To all those who, one way or another, belong in this honourable institution, as well as all those who, with their effort, their intelligence, knowledge and dedication contributed to transform the Technical Institute into what it is today, my very sincere congratulations.

Thank you