Curriculum

Engineer Thomaz José Ripper Barbosa Cordeiro, that owns the Portuguese nationality, was born on the 15th of March, 1952, in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, having been graduated in 1974, at the School of Engineering of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (EE/UFRJ), obtaining specialization in Structures. In Portugal his diploma was recognized by the Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon, during the year of 1987.

The post graduation courses had taken place both at the COPPE and at the UFF, in Rio de Janeiro, while the studies with the level of Doctor of Sciences were performed in Lisbon, at the IST. He has also a diploma of Specialization in Reinforced Concrete held at the EE/UFRJ.
His academic career includes, beyond different lectures in many Universities in Brazil, as invited lecturer, teaching “Structural Stability” and “Reinforced Concrete”, a contract with the Federal Fluminense University (UFF), in Rio de Janeiro, from 1975 to 1986, where he was responsible for lecturing Structural Projects. In this period he has been honoured for ten consecutive times, by the graduates, as their Spokesman or Sponsor.

Later on, between 1996 and 2002, he was invited to become a lecturer at the PhD Course in the same UFF, thus becoming responsible for teaching “Special Systems for the Strengthening and Repair of Constructions” as well as “Composite Materials for Civil Construction”.

In Portugal he has collaborated, as invited lecturer, with the Reinforced and Prestressed Group of the Structural and Material Department of the IST, teaching “Buildings Structural Design” and “Constructions Durability”, between 1986 and 2002.

He is a member of both the Portuguese and Brazilian Engineers Council, of the Brazilian Institute of the Concrete (IBRACON), of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), of the Concrete Society (UK), of the American Concrete Institute (ACI), of the International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI), of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) and of the Fédération Internationale du Béton (FIB).

Professionally, he started as a trainee and later as an engineer at the very prestigious company SEEBLA, in Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

His first experience as a businessman was in 1978, in a society built with Eng. Fernando Costa e Silva, curiously born in Portugal. Later on, already attracted by the spell of the Constructions Rehabilitation subjects, became the Projects Manager and Headmaster of the Structures Department at CONCREMAT S. A., from where he moved to Portugal, becoming the Technical Director at Jet Beton – Structures Rehabilitation, L.da, a SOMEC Group company, up to his decision in founding, in 1992, his own company, LEB - Construction Rehabilitation Designers and Consultants.

Eng. Thomaz Ripper had the opportunity to be invited for presenting many conferences all around the world, having decided, from the 90’s on, to focuses his research and production on subjects such as the Durability of the Constructions and to the Use of Last Generation Materials on the Strengthening and Rehabilitation of Existing Constructions, plus a particular effort on studying Non Intrusive Technicians for the Rehabilitation of the Historical, Architectonical and Civil Construction Heritage.