Reelected in January of this year, Professor Osvaldo Novais de Oliveira Junior (IFSC-USP) began his second consecutive mandate as president of the Brazilian Materials Research Society (B-MRS) this February, together with a partially renewed board of directors, composed of Professor Rubem Luis Sommer (CBPF) in the administration, finance and equity sector, and as scientific directors, Professors Antonio Eduardo Martinelli (UFRN), Daniel Eduardo Weibel (UFRGS), Glaura Goulart Silva (UFMG), Iêda Maria Garcia dos Santos (UFPB) and Mônica Alonso Cotta (Unicamp). This board will manage the society for two years until the end of 2019.
Currently, Professor Novais de Oliveira Junior (or “Chu”, as he is known) is a full professor at the São Carlos Institute of Physics – University of São Paulo (IFSC-USP) and associate editor of the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. With an H index of 58, his name is among the 100 scientists in Brazil of all areas with higher H index. He is author of about 500 articles and his works include nearly 15,500 citations (Google Scholar data).
In this interview, the re-elected president speaks a little about his first term in B-MRS, the management he will initiate in this new mandate and his current scientific activities.
B-MRS Newsletter: You have just completed your first term as president of B-MRS. Share with our readers your thoughts about the results achieved by the board you presided over.
Osvaldo Novais de Oliveira Junior: In the last mandate the board’s priority was to keep the Annual Meetings at a high level, despite the financial crisis Brazil’s science, technology and innovation system is undergoing. In addition to this priority, we continued the endeavors of previous boards in the internationalization of SBPMat, which include partnerships with scientific societies from other countries.
B-MRS Newsletter: – You have just accepted a new two-year term as president of SBPMat. Comment on your plans and expectations.
Osvaldo Novais de Oliveira Junior: The expectations of the Board of Directors are to be able to continue the activities that made SBPMat one of the most active and prestigious scientific societies in Brazil. The main plans I want to highlight concern working toward a greater insertion in the society, with the task of disseminating the contributions of science and technology to the country, and to increase the number of B-MRS members.
B-MRS Newsletter: About your scientific research work, share with us what you are doing.
Osvaldo Novais de Oliveira Junior: My group`s research work, in partnership with other groups in Brazil and abroad, focuses on two areas: i) the study and use of materials for biology and medicine, for example using biosensors for early diagnosis of cancer and determination of mechanisms at the molecular level of drugs to combat super-resistant bacteria. ii) the use of statistical physics methodologies and complex networks for text analysis, such as authorship identification of books and verification of multidisciplinarity in the scientific literature.
B-MRS Newsletter: If you wish, use this space to leave a message for the B-MRS members and the community that follows the news of this newsletter.
Osvaldo Novais de Oliveira Junior: I and the new board hope to have the enthusiastic support of the community, as in recent years.
Learn more about the trajectory of our president (interview of January 2016).