Research interests

• History of Chemistry (19th century);
• History of Geology (19th century).

Projects

• “The Portuguese Geological Survey (1848-1970): History and Scientific Heritage", (PTDC/HCT/65345/2006), 2007-2011.
• “Paving the way for integrated archival and collection-based research in the history of science: Preservation, access and case-studies of the collections of the Museum of Science (University of Lisbon)”, (PTDC/HCT/64181/2006), 2007-2011.
• “Science, technical training and the construction of Liberalism in Portugal: the case of the Polytechnic School of Lisbon (1837-1911)”, (HC/0084/2009), 2010-2013.

Publications (selection)

1. Vanda Leitão, “A Review of the Historical Literature on the Laboratorio Chimico of the Polytechnic School of Lisbon” in Marta C. Lourenço, Ana Carneiro (eds.), Spaces and Collections in the History of Science: The Laboratorio Chimico Overture, (Lisboa: Museum of Science of the University of Lisbon, 2009), pp. 77-86.
2. Ana Carneiro, Vanda Leitão, “Engineers, the Geological Survey of Portugal (1857-1908), and the Professionalization of Geologists”, in Ana Cardoso de Matos, Maria Paula Diogo, Irina Gouzevitch, André Grelon (eds.), Jogos de Identidade: os engenheiros entre a formação e a acção (Les enjeux identitaires des ingénieurs: entre la formation et l’action), (Lisboa: Colibri, 2009), pp. 277-310.
3. Vanda Leitão, Ana Carneiro, Ana Simões, “Portugal: Tackling a Complex Chemical Equation: The Portuguese Society of Chemistry (1911-1926),” in Anita Kildebæk Nielsen, Sona Strbanova (eds.), Creating Networks in Chemistry. The Founding and Early History of Chemical Societies in Europe, (Cambridge: The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2008), pp. 258-277.
4. Vanda Leitão, “Levantamento Geológico de Portugal Continental: As primeiras Comissões Geológicas de Portugal”, Boletim de Minas, 42 (2007), 149-156.
5. Vanda Leitão, Graça Santa-Bárbara, “O Laboratorio Chimico da Escola Politécnica de Lisboa (1857-1890; 1998-2006)”, Boletim da Sociedade Portuguesa de Química, 102 (2006), 45-54.
6. Vanda Leitão, “Breve introdução sobre as primeiras Comissões Geológicas de Portugal: da criação à extinção”, Geonovas, 19 (2005), 9-18.
7. Ana Carneiro, Vanda Leitão, Dores Areias, Luís Pinto, “The Role of Travels in the Internationalisation of Nineteenth Century Portuguese Geological Science”, in Ana Simões, Ana Carneiro, Maria Paula Diogo (eds), Travels of Learning. A geography Science in Europe, (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003), pp. 249-290.
8. Vanda Leitão, “Bringing Rocks into State Bureaucracy: The Portuguese Geological Survey“, Proceedings of the 26th Symposium of the International Commission of the History of Geological Sciences (INHIGEO), Portugal 2001, pp. 273-280.
9. Vanda Leitão, “The Travel of the Geologist Carlos Ribeiro (1813-1882) in Europe, in 1858”, Comunicações do Instituto Geológico e Mineiro, 88 (2001), 293-300.
10. Vanda Leitão, "The Teaching of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry in the Lisbon Polytechnic School and in the Oporto Polytechnic Academy (1837-1890)", ICON, 5 (1999), 85-89.