New Year Message

With this New Year Message, I greet the entire B-MRS community in Brazil and abroad.

There is great expectation that in 2019 Brazil will resume its investments in science, technology and innovation, which we believe to be minimally necessary for the continuation of our system, developed with tremendous effort over the last decades. For the meeting that the academic community had with the future minister of science and technology in early December 2018, the main suggestion B-MRS sent was about reinstating the budget in the area. It is known that Brazil needs to invest much more in the generation of knowledge to solve its serious economic and social problems.

Reinstating the budget is merely the first and most urgent step given the situation of universities and research centers in the country. Also important and part of B-MRS ‘s suggestions is the emphasis on partnerships between ministries to address the problems of society at large, which always entail knowledge, technology and innovation, and the search for synergy with the private sector to transform knowledge into wealth and social well-being.

The materials area in particular has proved to be essential for any and all development. From fundamental discoveries of basic science for the understanding of nature and the conquest of space, to applications in medicine and agriculture, areas that today advance significantly from new materials and methodologies created to study them. In Brazil, for example, the inauguration of the first phase of Sirius, a new source of synchrotron light, at the National Center for Research in Energy and Materials, revealed a masterpiece of materials science and engineering. Even more relevant is that much of this technology is Brazilian.

B-MRS has continuously strived to provide space for researchers from Brazil and abroad to communicate and discuss their scientific and technological contributions and to seek partnerships for new challenges in a highly multidisciplinary field. Our last meeting in Natal (RN), in September 2018, repeated the success of previous editions with this perspective. Some of the many advances in materials science and technology have been highlighted in the B-MRS Newsletters, as a sample of the quality work being done in Brazil. B-MRS also considers scientific dissemination as strategic. In 2018 it created a new section of the Newsletter, entitled “From idea to innovation,” with special reports on the effect of technologies that reached society.

I end by thanking the B-MRS community, wishing all much health and success in 2019, and hoping to meet many of you in our next Meeting at Balneário Camboriú (SC), September 22-26.

Professor Osvaldo Novais de Oliveira Junior
President of B-MRS

XVIII B-MRS Meeting/ Encontro da SBPMat
(Balneário Camboriú, SC, Brazil, September 22 – 26, 2019)

The event website is up and running! www.sbpmat.org.br/18encontro/

Symposia. 23 symposia proposed by the international scientific community were approved by the organization and comprise this edition of the event. See the symposia list, here.

Abstract submission. The submission of abstracts is open until April 15. Approval, modification, or rejection notifications will be sent by May 31. Final notices for abstracts needing modification will be sent by June 21.

Student awards. To participate in the Bernhard Gross Award, authors must submit an extended abstract by July 11 in addition to the conventional abstract. Learn more, here.

Registrations. Registration is now open. More information, here.

Venue. The meeting will be held in the delightful Balneário Camboriú (State of Santa Catarina, Brazil), at the Hotel Sibara Flat & Conventions, located in the center of the city, close to many hotels, restaurants and shops, and only 100 meters from the sea. More information, here.

Memorial lecture. The traditional Memorial Lecture Joaquim da Costa Ribeiro will be given by Professor Yvonne Primerano Mascarenhas (IFSC – USP).

Plenary lectures. Leading scientists from institutions in Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States will deliver plenary talks on border issues at the event. There will also be a plenary session by the Brazilian scientist Antônio José Roque da Silva, director of CNPEM and the Sirius project (new Synchrotron Light Lab). Learn more about the plenary sessions, here.

Organization. The chair of the event is Professor Ivan Helmuth Bechtold (Physics Department of UFSC) and the co-chair is Professor Hugo Gallardo (Department of Chemistry of UFSC). The program committee is formed by professors Iêda dos Santos (UFPB), José Antônio Eiras (UFSCar), Marta Rosso Dotto (UFSC) and Mônica Cotta (Unicamp). Get to know all the organizers, here.

Exhibitors and sponsors. 9 companies have already confirmed their participation in the event. Those interested in booking booths or participating with other forms of sponsorship can contact Alexandre at the e-mail comercial@sbpmat.org.br.

News from B-MRS Members

– B-MRS member Prof. Sidney José Lima Ribeiro (UNESP Araraquara) was elected Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences. Know more.

– B-MRS member Prof. Luciana Reyes Pires Kassab (Fatec São Paulo) is co-editor of Elsevier’s new book on photonic nanostructures. Know more.

– B-MRS members Prof. Sérgio Ricardo de Lázaro and Luis Henrique da Silveira Lacerda (UEPG) are authors of a new book on Density Functional Theory. Know more.

Reading Tips

– A Brazilian scientific team obtained the largest sheet of graphene ever reported with a simple and low-cost chemical method. The work is the cover article of the flagship journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and was published in the RSC release (Chemical Science). Know more.

– Scientists are able to film microparticles colliding with metals at high speed and, based on the data obtained, they can predict what can occur with the particle and the material. The study can benefit industrial processes based on the impact of microparticles on surfaces (Nature Communications). Know more.

– When conducting experiments with gold nanoparticles, scientists discover an unexpected way of light – matter interaction, which can help develop optical nanoantennas and nanocomponents (ACS Nano). Know more.

Opportunities

– Postdoctoral positions for glass research at CeRTEV (São Carlos, Brazil). Know more.

Events

Escola de Fabricação e Caracterização de Nanomateriais e Nanodispositivos. Duque de Caxias, RJ (Brazil). February 18 – 22, 2019. Site.

International Workshop on Advanced Magnetic Oxides (IWAMO 2019). Aveiro (Portugal). April 15 – 17, 2019. Site.

Follow us on social media