Professor Schmitt is Professor of Pathology at the University of Porto, Director of RISE (Clinical and Translational Research Network of the Medical Faculty) and Head of Molecular Pathology at IPATIMUP.Past-President of the International Society of Breast Pathology and General Secretary and President-elect of the International Academy of Cytology (IAC).

He has authored more than 500 papers in peer-review journals, 33 book chapters and he is editor of 6 books.He is widely considered a world-leading expert in cytopathology and breast cancer.He was fellow at the Karolinska Medical Hospital, Sweden, and was Professor of Pathology at the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil and University of Toronto, Canada. He was also Director of the Department of Medicine at Laboratoire national de santé Luxembourg. His research work is on breast cancer, with emphasis on molecular markers, therapeutic targets and mechanisms of resistance. In the last years, his research work has been dedicated to the study of molecular markers on cytological material.
He serves as Editor in Chief of Pathobiology and Associate Editor of six major scientific journals and sits on the editorial board of many others. He is standing member of WHO-IAC Classification of Tumours. He has also been chair, president or scientific director of several major European, Portuguese and Brazilian scientific societies of pathology and cytology. He received the following prizes: Educator of the Year 2011 by the PSC, GOLDBLATT AWARD 2013 by the IAC,Dario Cruz 2018 from the Portuguese League Against Cancer for his career as researcher in breast cancer and the 2021 International Achievement Award from the American Society of Cytopathology.