On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the outstanding Macanese writer and lawyer Henrique de Senna Fernandes, the University of Macau (UM) presented the Henrique de Senna Fernandes Academic Prize for the Best Portuguese Thesis. The prize recognises postgraduate students who have demonstrated excellent academic performance in Portuguese-related fields.

The prize is funded by the University of Macau Development Foundation (UMDF). Francisco Manuel Pelicano Antunes, Carla Alexandra Santos Lopes, and Lang Sida, doctoral students in the Department of Portuguese of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, and Leong Kin Man, a master’s student in the Faculty of Law, were awarded the prize for best doctoral theses and best master’s thesis in Portuguese for the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 academic years, respectively. Rui Martins, vice rector of UM, and Miguel de Senna Fernandes, president of Associação dos Macaenses, presented the prize to the awardees.

Martins expressed his gratitude to UMDF for their support of the prize and said that UM is committed to deepening its cooperation with Portuguese universities and research institutions, as well as cultivating bilingual talent. He expressed hope that the prize will encourage doctoral and master’s students at the university to improve the quality of their theses and strengthen their research capacity in Portuguese-related fields. Fernandes also expressed his gratitude to the university for establishing the prize in his father’s name and congratulated all the awardees.