Amílcar Manuel Marreiros Duarte is from Aljezur (Algarve, Portugal), born into a family of small farmers. He has a degree in Agronomy (1986) from the Kharkov Institute of Agronomy (current Kharkiv V.V. Dokuchayev National Agrarian University) and a master's degree in Citriculture (1992) from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain) and CIHEAM. He has a PhD in Agricultural Sciences / Fruticulture (2003), from the University of Algarve. Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Algarve, where he has been teaching since 1988. He is currently director of the degree in Agronomy and member of the General Council of the University of Algarve. He is also vice-president of the Portuguese Association of Horticulture.

He has been coordinating and participating in several research projects related to the sustainable citrus production, increasing the crop's tolerance to phytosanitary threats and climate change, including reducing water consumption through deficit irrigation. He has also carried out research work on other fruit crops, such as dragon fruit and avocado. He has more than 100 technical and scientific publications, namely: more than 20 articles in international peer-reviewed journals; more than 30 articles in technical magazines; more than 40 articles in proceedings of scientific meeting minutes; several technical books and book chapters.