Marco Piccardo is an Assistant Professor in the Physics Department of Técnico Lisboa, a Principal Investigator at INESC Microsystems and Nanotechnologies, and a Visiting Professor at Harvard University. His research focusses on meta-optics, structured light and ultrafast lasers. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from Ecole Polytechnique in 2016 and carried his research at Harvard University. He is the recipient of an ERC Starting Grant 2024, an EIC Pathfinder 2025, an ERC Proof of Concept 2026, and an MSCA Doctoral Network 2026 among other competitive funds. Marco is VP of the Scientific Council of INESC MN and pedagogical director of the IST Undegraduate Physics Labs. He has been elected Young Scientist of the Portuguese's National Academy of Sciences and Young Member of the Italian Academy of Engineering and Technology (ITATEC). He is the recipient of the ULisboa-CGD Scientific Prize in Physics and Materials (2026), the Young Physicist Award "G. F. Bassani" of the Italian Physical Society, and laureate of the PhD Award "Innovative Materials and Applications" of the Université Paris-Saclay. He holds around 60 peer-reviewed publications, in journals including Nature, Science, Nature Photonics, and Physical Review Letters, and holds 7 patent applications in photonics, some of which have been licensed and used in real-word photonic technology. He is co-founder of Altitude, a deep-tech photonics startup in aerospace.