J. Rocha is a theoretical physicist with broad interests spanning gravitation, high-energy physics and mathematical physics. His research focuses on the study of black holes and other solutions of General Relativity, and extensions thereof. He obtained a PhD degree in Physics from University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2008, under the supervision of Prof. Joseph Polchinski. He earned his pre-Bologna bachelor degree in Technological Physics Engineering, in 2002, from Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), University of Lisbon. He is currently an Assistant Professor of the Department of Mathematics at ISCTE-IUL. Between 2015 and 2019 he worked as a research post-doc fellow at Universitat de Barcelona.

In total, J. Rocha has published 30+ original articles in top international peer-reviewed journals. He has vast experience in oral presentations (20+ invited seminars at various institutes in the USA, UK, Belgium, Japan, Brazil, Spain and Portugal; 30+ oral communications at international conferences). He regularly engages in outreach activities.

J. Rocha organized 6 scientific meetings, among which four were international conferences/workshops. He supervised 1 Master thesis, and co-supervised one PhD student and another Master student. He was a member of the examination committee of 2 PhD students and 4 Master students. He is the recipient of 5 prizes and awards, including a Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual fellowship. He is a member of Sociedade Portuguesa de Relatividade e Gravitação.