Founding President of B-MRS is elected Fellow of the Microscopy Society of America (MSA).

Prof. Guillermo Solórzano
Prof. Guillermo Solórzano

Professor Guillermo Solórzano-Naranjo, one of the leaders in the creation of B-MRS and the first president of the society, was appointed fellow of the Microscopy Society of America (MSA) at the end of February of this year. Thus, Solórzano-Naranjo became the first academic in Latin America with a MSA fellowship status.

This title is intended for senior members of that scientific society who have contributed significantly to the advancement of microscopy and microanalysis. In the case of Professor Solórzano-Naranjo, he was chosen for his excellence in the application of microscopy to solve materials problems, as well as for the service rendered as ambassador for international cooperation through microscopy.

Guillermo Solórzano-Naranjo is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Materials Engineering at PUC-Rio. He is a member of the board of the International Federation of Societies for Microscopy (IFSM), where he is also the only representative of Latin America. In addition to being founding president of B-MRS, he has served or was a member of executive committees of several scientific entities in the field of microscopy, such as the Brazilian Society of Microscopy and Microanalysis (SBMM), the Brazilian Society of Electronic Microscopy (SBME); Inter American Committee of Societies for Electron Microscopy (IACSEM); International Union of Microbeam Analysis Society (IUMAS). He was also chairman of the seventeenth edition of the International Conference of Microscopy, held in 2010 for the first time in South America.

Solorzano-Naranjo will be honored by MSA at the awards ceremony that will take place at the opening of the M&M2018 event on August 6 in Baltimore (United States).

Professor Fernando Lázaro Freire Junior, former president of SBPMat, became the director of the Physics Department of PUC-Rio.

Prof. Fernando Lázaro Freire Júnior.

Professor Fernando Lázaro Freire Junior, a participatory member of SBPMat since its creation, took over as director of the Physics Department at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) in an inauguration ceremony held on May 31 of this year.

With an undergraduate degree, a master’s and doctorate in Physics from PUC-Rio, Freire Junior began teaching at that university in 1979. In 1985, he became an assistant professor and, in 2012, a full professor. From 2003 to 2008 he was director of the Physics Department of the university, a post he occupies again this year. Between 2011 and 2015, he served as director of the Brazilian Center for Research in Physics (CBPF).

In SBPMat, Fernando Lázaro Freire Junior was a member of the founding board (2001), scientific director from 2004 to 2005, president for two consecutive terms from 2006 to 2009 and financial director from 2012 to 2013, among other activities.

See the news story about Professor Freire Junior appointed as the director of the Physics Department in the website of PUC-Rio: http://jornaldapuc.vrc.puc-rio.br/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?infoid=4584&sid=29#.V2RKkrsrKBa.