Carlos Manuel Agra Coelho (Carlos A. Coelho as an author, or just Carlos Coelho or Carlos for friends) is currently a Full Professor at the Mathematics Department of NOVA College of Science and Technology of NOVA University of Lisbon. He was born on November 22, 1958, in what was then a small town on the shore of a quite large bay on the south banks of the Tagus river called Barreiro, where a flourishing chemical industry was thriving. His father, Joaquim Borrego Coelho, and his mother, Maria Luiza Brás Gonçalves Agra Coelho, were chemical analysts at CUF (Companhia União Fabril), the largest chemical company installed in that small town. Since he was quite young Carlos Coelho liked both animals and nature, as well as all that might be related with mathematics. This ended up showing in his high school grades, making it difficult for him to choose between the areas of biology and mathematics when entering the University. He first enrolled in the Mathematics undergraduate program at the then Classical University of Lisbon, but eventually ended up attending the Agronomy/Forestry program at the Agronomy College of the then other University of Lisbon, the Lisbon University of Technology (since 2012 these two Universities coalesced to form the University of Lisbon). The two first years were common between the undergraduate degrees of Agronomy and Forestry, both with a curricula of 5 years plus a professional/technical internship.