Navy officer is the first Portuguese to lead NATO's Military Oceanography panel

Lieutenant-Captain Luís Quaresma dos Santoswas elected chairman of the NATO technical panel on Military Oceanography (NATO MILOC). This is the Alliance's main expert forum, which brings together representatives from all Allied Nations in support of the NATO Military Committee in the fields of physical oceanography and its application in naval operations. Thus, Portugal assumes, for the first time, the coordination of this important and unique working group, formed in the 60s, during the “Cold War”. Knowledge of the structure and dynamics of the ocean allows increasing the operational effectiveness and security of naval forces, becoming a critical factor in the success of submarine, anti-submarine, mine warfare and amphibious projection operations.

​This election resulted from an invitation addressed by NATO to Commander Quaresma dos Santos, constituting an international recognition for the work developed by the Navy military and for the capacity developed by Portugal in this field of knowledge (promoted and implemented by the Hydrographic Institute) and in its important contribution to developing it within the Alliance.

Lieutenant-Captain Luís Quaresma dos Santos joined the Navy in 2001 as an officer of the Technical Superior Naval class, having dedicated his career to the study of ocean dynamics and the development of the national military capacity to use this knowledge to support the planning and the conduct of naval operations. He holds a Masters in Geophysics from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon and a PhD in Physical Oceanography from the University of Western Brittany (France). He is since 2017 the Director of the Marine Geospatial, Meteorological and Oceanographic Center (GEOMETOC) of the Navy and since 2021 “Branch Head” in the new NATO Center of Excellence in “Maritime GEOMETOC”, the NATO MGEOMETOC COE (built in Lisbon).