Maria Estela de Freitas Vera-Cruz Jardim was born in Lisbon in 1945. She holds a degree in Chemistry from the University of Lisbon (1970), a PhD in Chemistry (Mass Spectrometry) from the University of Glasgow, UK (1975) and from the University of Lisbon (1976). She has the preparatory course of the National School of Music in Lisbon. She was Associate Professor of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (1979-2010). She was Invited Professor at the University of Madeira from 1986-1993 and the University of Manchester, UK, from 1994-1996. She was an Invited Researcher at the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles, CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, France in 1978. She coordinated or collaborated in research projects in the areas of Mass Spectrometry of compounds of biological interest, History of Chemistry and History of Scientific Photography. She was a Fellow of IUPAC (1998-2013) and was a consultant (Area of Sciences) for the Luso-Arab Institute for Cooperation (ILAC) (2006-2014). She participated in the design and was a member of the FCT Project: “Scientific Photography: study of instrumentation and chemical-physical processes during the period 19th-early 20th centuries” (approved in 2009; duration: 2009-2013). She lectured at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Faculty of Sciences and the University of Madeira several courses for Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics and Biology students, namely General Chemistry, Physical-Chemistry, Theoretical Chemistry, Quantum Chemistry, Chemistry Methodology, Techniques in Laboratory and Molecular Spectroscopy. She has supervised various pedagogical and scientific internships, Master and PhD. Her present research interests are in the area of historical scientific photography and cinema as well as the relationship between Art and Science. Within the Science and Art domain, she participated in the design of the International Doctoral Program “Philosophy of Science, Technology, Art and Society” which began in September 2014 and lectured in this program as well as in an undergraduate course on “Science and Art” given at the Faculty of Science, University of Lisbon.