B-MRS Newsletter. Year 9, issue 1.

B-MRS Executive Board elected in December begins its term now in February. The Board is formed by four women and three men from institutions in the Southeast, Northeast, South and North Brazilian regions. All of them are very active scientists in their research areas. See the mini bios of the president and directors, here.

On the occasion of the second death anniversary of Ricardo Rodrigues, B-MRS founding member Aldo Craievich describes the leader of the development of the two Brazilian synchrotron sources as an “exceptional human being and a true polymath”. Read the text here.

First annual B-MRS event held in virtual format, the XIX B-MRS Meeting + IURMS ICEM 2021 brought together around 1,100 participants from 23 Brazilian states and 33 other countries between August 30 and September 3. The event featured more than 560 posters, 280 oral presentations, 114 invited lectures and 10 plenary sessions, among other presentations. Read the event report.

In March we held a series of lives on entrepreneurship in science: 7 informal chats, conducted by members of our University Chapters, with founders of startups and companies in materials, nanotechnology and related segments. Held on Zoom with broadcast on Facebook, the lives were recently uploaded to B-MRS YouTube. Access the playlist.

In June, we celebrated B-MRS 20th anniversary with an online event that brought together members, partners, staff and other community participants. The event featured a panel about the past, present and future of materials research in Brazil and a virtual toast to B-MRS. View the recording of the event.

In early September, we held a panel discussion on the underrepresentation of women in science exacerbated by race and geographic distribution. The panel brought together leading female scientists from Brazil, Argentina and the United States, all of whom have a strong presence in gender issues. The live was carried out on Zoom, but is available on B-MRS YouTube. Watch the discussion.

Prof. Edson Roberto Leite (UFSCar and LNNano – CNPEM) was distinguished in the first edition of the José Arana Varela Award from B-MRS. The emotional tribute took place during the XIX B-MRS Meeting + IUMRS ICEM, before Professor Leite gave a plenary lecture on the characterization of nanocrystals. Read our interview with Edson Leite.

B-MRS granted to Prof. Cid de Araújo (UFPE) the Memorial Lecture Joaquim da Costa Ribeiro, that have been granted since 2011 to researchers from the materials community with a long and pioneering scientific trajectory in Brazil. Professor Cid gave the opening lecture of the XIX B-MRS Meeting + IUMRS speaking about plasmonic nanocomposites in non-linear photonics. Read our interview with Cid de Araújo.

35 undergraduate and graduate students received the B-MRS, ACS and RSC Student Awards at the XIX B-MRS Meeting for the contributions they presented. We invited the winners to talk about the award-winning works in an uncomplicated way in videos up to 3 minutes long, and we created a playlist on our YouTube with the videos. Access the playlist.