Adviser of several MSc and PhD thesis in the area of water resources and was invited to be a member of various academic juries.

In April 2003 Rodrigues was integrated into the 15th Constitutional Government of Portugal as Minister of the Public Works, Transportation and Habitation.

With the inauguration of the 16th Constitutional Government of Portugal in July 2004, he returned to Lisbon city hall as Mayor, an office he held for eight months.

The results in the city's team of vereadores (municipal government) were: 8 to PSD, 5 to PS, 2 to the communist coalition, 1 to CDS-PP and 1 to the Left Bloc.

He run as an candidate with an independent movement that he created for that purpose and ended up in second place with 16.7% of the votes (behind António Costa (PS).

He married Maria Isabel Giménez-Salinas Moreira Ribeiro, daughter of Fernando Moreira Ribeiro and wife Spanish María de la Concepción Giménez-Salinas y Martín, by whom he has three daughters: He divorced and later married Ana Margarida Salina Ferro de Beça, by whom he has one son: Public praise, Gazette (Diário da República), II Série, 23/11/1995.