The new board of directors of the Brazilian Materials Research Society (B-MRS) took office on the afternoon of January 4th this year during an Ordinary General Assembly held online.
Elected by B-MRS members in October 2023 to serve a two-year term, the new board is chaired by Ivan Helmuth Bechtold, professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). Bechtold was a member of the B-MRS board of directors in the previous two administrations – first, as scientific director and second, as financial director. Now, he became the first B-MRS president from an institution outside the Southeast region, the previous seven presidents being linked to institutions in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Together with the president, Iêda Maria Garcia dos Santos, professor at the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), took office as director of Administration, Finance and Assets, and the five scientific directors: Edson Cavalcanti da Silva Filho, professor at the Federal University of Piauí (UFPI), Ingrid Távora Weber, professor at the University of Brasília (UnB), Lucas Fugikawa Santos, professor at the São Paulo State University (Unesp), Lucimara Stolz Roman, professor at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) and Rubem Luis Sommer, researcher at the Brazilian Center for Physical Research (CBPF).
Once again, the B-MRS board presents geographic diversity (with directors from the South, Southeast, Central-West and Northeast regions), gender (four men and three women) and disciplinary diversity (degrees in Physics, Chemistry and Materials Engineering).
Around twenty members of B-MRS participated in the assembly, including several members of the Deliberative Council, which was partially renewed in the election in October last year with the incorporation of three councilors (Douglas Galvão – Unicamp, José Antonio Eiras – UFSCAR and Luiza Amim Mercante – UFBA) and three deputy councilors (Carlos Roberto Grandini – UNESP, Bartolomeu Cruz Viana Neto – UFPI and Sydney Ferreira Santos – UFABC). These new members have a mandate until the end of 2028.
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Professor Mônica Cotta (Unicamp), who presided over the society for the last four years, opened the meeting with thanks to everyone who supported her during her two terms. The former president also expressed support to the news board´s plans of reviving the University Chapters program, focused on students of the community, and prioritize initiatives related to racial and gender inclusion and sustainability. Furthermore, Mônica expressed her satisfaction at seeing more representatives of the younger generations on the board and council. “We need new ideas,” she said.
The new president, Prof Ivan, then took the floor to thank the B-MRS partners for the trust placed in him and to introduce the other members of the board. “Let’s steer the ship together, hold the ball together,” said Professor Ivan, highlighting the board’s initial focus on the annual event (“the B-MRS main national and international showcase”) and the University Chapters program.
In turn, the new financial director, Prof Ieda, recalled some struggles that B-MRS is carrying out together with other scientific societies, such as the return of some scientific journals to the Capes Periodicals Portal and the reduction of bureaucratic procedures in the purchase of reagents for research, so that “the choice of the research topic is not conditioned by the reagent we can buy”.
The meeting ended in a pleasant conversation between some of the members present, in which several members of the new board said that they joined B-MRS when they were still students and that they participated in all (or almost all) of the annual events.
Find out more about the members of the new board: https://www.sbpmat.org.br/en/a-sbpmat/diretoria-e-conselho/