Luzia Travado, PhD, MSc, ClinPsych, is a clinical psychologist specialising in health psychology and psycho-oncology, with degrees from the University of Lisbon, and a doctorate from the University of Coimbra, both in Portugal. She is currently a clinician and researcher of psycho-oncology at the Champalimaud Clinical Centre of the Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon.
Dr Travado’s 35-year long career started at Hospital de São José, Central Lisbon University Hospital Centre, where she pioneered health psychology by developing psychosocial programmes for clinical populations including cancer. Dr Travado served as Adviser of the National Cancer Director in Portugal (2007–2011), contributed to the National Cancer Control Programme by introducing psychosocial care for cancer patients, and communication skills training through a national pilot programme. She represented Portugal at the European Partnership on Action Against Cancer (EPAAC, 2009–2019) and led the Psychosocial Oncology Action training strategy.
Dr Travado is an active advocate of psychosocial cancer care at European cancer policy level and participates in various European collaborative projects and European Commission initiatives. She served as President of the International Psycho-Oncology Society, currently President-Emeritus, was Chair of the International Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS) World Congress of Psycho-Oncology held in Lisbon in 2014 and is currently co-chair of IPOS-2023 in Milan.
Dr Travado has been a researcher on many nationally and internationally funded research projects, including some as principal investigator. In 2022, Dr Travado received the Jimmie Holland Memorial Award in recognition for her important and substantial contribution to the field of psycho-oncology.
