 After careful consideration, his parents advised him to decline the offer as they felt he was too young, at age 16, to live alone in London.After graduating from high school, he left India to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a BS degree in 1950, and an MS degree in 1952.He subsequently received a PhD from Harvard University in 1959.

de Figueiredo worked as a consultant for the Portuguese Atomic Energy Commission while finishing his PhD, and upon graduation, became the head of the Applied Maths and Physics Division of the Nuclear Research Centre, in Sacavém, Portugal.