Manuel Joaquim Henriques de Paiva[a] (23 December 1752 – 10 March 1829) was a Portuguese Brazilian chemist and physician, and an important science communicator.

A prolific author, Henriques de Paiva published several dozens of scientific books, several of them translations or adaptations of works by international scientists such as Scopoli, Linnaeus, Brisson, or Fourcroy.

During his youth, his family embarked to Colonial Brazil, where his father was the apothecary to the viceroy, the Marquis of Lavradio; it was here that he first trained as a chemist.

[2] After initially planning to study abroad, he enrolled at the University of Coimbra, showing great enthusiasm about the Pombaline reforms,[2] and earned his degrees in Natural Philosophy in 1775 and in Medicine in 1781.

[1] His links to the Freemasonry and to the French during the first invasion of Portugal in the Peninsular War would see him tried as a jacobin in 1809, banished to Brazil, and stripped of his offices and honours.