Francisco Duque defended successfully his PhD thesis on "Gravitational Waves and the Galactic Potential", under the supervision of Prof. Vitor Cardoso. The PhD jury was composed of Gaurav Khanna from Rhode Island, Scott Hughes from MIT, Andrea Maselli from GSSI, David Hilditch from Técnico, and chaired by Ilidio Lopes. His thesis was awarded Honors and Distinction. Francisco published seminal work on environmental effects in strong-field gravity during his PhD, and is now moving to the Albert Einstein Institute in Potsdam for a postdoctoral position.