[Text by Professor Petrus Santa Cruz (DQF/UFPE), B-MRS member]
It is difficult to assess the indirect impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is even more difficult to receive, even at this point, news from direct victims, such as that of a long-time collaborator, Hernán Valenzuela, who left us on the 7th of March.
As a senior representative of the Fraunhofer ENAS Institute (Fraunhofer-Instituts für Elektronische Nanosysteme ENAS) in Latin America, nearly 20 years ago Hernán began to bring together researchers involved in the application of new materials in nanotechnologies in the Minapim Seminar, a biennial series of which Hernán has been chairman since his first edition in 2004, together with the creation of the MTM Minapim News Technology Magazine, initiatives initially supported by the Superintendence of the Manaus Free Trade Zone (SUFRAMA). In the 2018 edition of the Minapim Seminar, emphasis was given to the consolidation of the international cooperation agreement between the Fraunhofer Institute ENAS and UFPE, having interacted in events involving new technologies since the first international events in the area, in 2003 at Nanofair (Switzerland) and NanoTech (Japan).
In 2013, he gave support to the UFPE’s Workshop for the Bioterium of Nanostructured Species BEN at SUFRAMA’s headquarters (Manaus), involving discussions on Biodiversity and Bioinspiration, within the scope of the Capes Nanobiotec Brasil Project.
As a result of the collaborations catalyzed by Hernán, in March 2020 a team including the President Director of Fraunhofer ENAS at the time, Dr. Thomas Otto, visited Ponto Quantico Nanodevices (Positiva, LandFoton/UFPE), when Ponto Quantico became the Hub of the Fraunhofer ENAS Cooperation Agreement with UFPE, and the team was received by the Rector Alfredo Gomes, a few days before the Recife campus lockdown, when the WHO declared the beginning of the ongoing pandemic.
Hernán, who was a sociologist, leaves a wife, four children, five grandchildren and many friends, many of them from our scientific community.
Prof. Petrus Santa Cruz (DQF/UFPE)
Sara Valenzuela
No orgulhamos muito do profissional e ser humano que foi o Hernan Valenzuela.
Ele construía pontes, fazia conexões que renderam muitos acordos de cooperação ao redor do mundo. Era incansável na busca pelo conhecimento.
Agradecemos sinceramente pela honrosa homenagem.
Sara e Rafael Valenzuela