Marcelo Henriques (MSc) is a researcher and head of the simulation team at CCG/ZGDV Institute, and an invited lecturer at the School of Engineering of University of Minho in Simulation and Statistics courses. He has a BSc in Automotive Engineering (2011), and a MSc in Industrial Engineering (2016). During his Master’s Dissertation he developed work in Discrete Event Simulation (DES), modelling an elevator system. Since then, he has collaborated in several R&D+I projects on DES, applied on several industrial partners: an automotive supplier (2016), a wood-based products manufacturer (2022), and a packaging manufacturer (2023). He is currently developing his PhD Thesis in usability on DES. Marcelo’s main current research topic is the role of DES in the Digital Twin (DT) era: how can DES contribute further to the DT, and how can DES take a central role in Decision Support Systems based on the Digital Twin. Aligned with this, Marcelo is also researching new methods to use open-source solutions in DES, namely with High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Machine Learning (ML). Over the years, Marcelo has published several scientific papers detailing his research work. As an invited lecturer, Marcelo has contributed to the Simulation (DES) courses to several Master’s students, Statistic fundamentals to Bachelor’s students, coupled with the tutoring of some students on their Master’s Dissertation, and guiding them through their Junior research phase in several applied research projects. Marcelo has been awarded with two recognition prizes for his role as an invited lecturer, one from Students themselves, and another by the School of Engineering. At the CCG/ZGDV Institute, Marcelo has had the opportunity to contribute to transferring knowledge from academia to industry. His responsibilities include: heading the Simulation research team, search and validate new research opportunities, and develop applications and proposals for new research projects and funding.