New University Chapter established at UFPE.

UC at UFPE: tutor, board of directors (students) and some members of the unit.
UC at UFPE: tutor, board of directors (students) and some members of the unit.

The University Chapters (UCs) program of B-MRS  begins 2019 with a new member, the UC of the Brazilian Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). With the creation of this unit, the program will have nine UCs distributed in the south, southeast, northeast and north of the country.

The interdisciplinary team of the new UC brings together 15 students (three undergraduate, five masters and seven doctoral students) from courses in Chemistry, Biological Sciences and Materials Science at UFPE. The tutor of the unit is Professor Petrus d’Amorim Santa Cruz Oliveira.

“What motivated us to create our UC was the need to explore the world of Materials Science, reinventing new ways to broaden and bring people from all parts, thus diversifying and strengthening our education more and more,” says Karolyne Santos da Silva, president of the UC. “Our highest expectation is to awaken young people to science, showing that there are possibilities to be innovative and have the opportunity to undergo new experiences with other researchers,” adds the doctoral student in Materials Science.

In the context of B-MRS’s UCs program, the team initially plans to hold a series of events: a holiday course, the 1st Meeting of Materials Science and Engineering of Pernambuco and annual workshops.

Get to know B-MRS’s UCs Program and the nine units it has so far in the states of Minas Gerais, Pará, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo: https://www.sbpmat.org.br/en/university-chapters/

B-MRS Newsletter. Year 5, issue 4.

 

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Newsletter of the
Brazilian Materials
Research Society

Year 5, issue 4. May 8, 2018.
Featured Paper

A Brazilian scientific team reported in Nature Physics the first observation of a phonon with spin – something similar to a network of atoms vibrating and rotating. The discovery may have an important impact on spintronics. Know more.

artigo fonos

From Idea to Innovation

To inaugurate this section of the newsletter, dedicated to telling the story of inventions that have become successful products, we propose a pun with you, reader: a riddle. Here’s the first clue. It is about a biomimetic product, metonymic, adored by children… and very practical. See here.

velcro news

XVII B-MRS Meeting
(Natal, Brazil, September 16 to 20, 2018)

natal_careca

Join us, by the beach, and be part of this great gathering, where science and technology will meet nature to form the ideal learning and exchanging experience!

Acceptance of works. Until May 25, authors submitting abstracts will receive notification regarding acceptance, rejection, or need to modify abstracts.

Awards for students. Students’ extended abstracts can be submitted until June 18 to apply for the Bernhard Gross and ACS Publications awards. Know more.

Conference Party. The party will be held on the night of September 19, at the Imirá Plaza Hotel & Convention, and will be sponsored by ACS Publications scientific journals. Know more.

Symposia. See the list of symposia that will compose the event here.

Registration. Early fee registration is open until July 31. See registration fees here.

Lodging, transfer and tours. See options of the event’s official tourist agency, Harabello, here.

Plenary lectures. Find out who are the 8 internationally renowned scientists who will deliver the plenary sessions and which are the themes of the lectures, here.

Memorial lecture. The Memorial Lecture “Joaquim da Costa Ribeiro” will be delivered at the opening session by Professor Fernando Galembeck.

Exhibitors and sponsors. 18 companies have already reserved their places in the exhibition and 13 names support the event throught other kinds of publicity. Companies interested in participating in the event with booths or sponsoring can contact Alexandre at comercial@sbpmat.org.br.

Organizers. The meeting chair is Professor Antonio E. Martinelli (Brazilian Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, UFRN). Meet the organization committee.

Venue. The event will be held in the convention center of Hotel Praiamar, located a few meters from the famous beach of Ponta Negra. Know more.

City. A well-known destination for international tourists, Natal also offers a pleasant environment to discuss, interact and learn. Its nice weather (dry with an average temperature of around 25 °C in September), the welcoming people and very refined seafood and local gastronomy create an atmosphere of well-being that goes beyond the natural beauty of the city’s coastline. Watch this short video about Natal.

montagem natal

News from B-MRS Members

Antonio Martinelli (scientific director of B-MRS) and Fernando Lázaro Freire Jr (former president of B-MRS) were chosen as coordinators of the Materials and Astronomy/Physics areas at CAPES, the Brazilian federal agency for the improvement of graduate programs. Know more.

novos coordenadores

Video: In an interview with UFSCar Radio program, Prof. Edgar Zanotto (co-founder of B-MRS) talks about the importance of glass, from its role in the beginning of the scientific revolution to the use of bioactive glasses in the health area. The scientist also comments on the role of Brazilian groups in global research on glassy materials. Watch.

zanotto

Video: In an interview with TV NBR, Prof. María del Pilar Hidalgo Falla talks about her work on nanocatalysts, nano-filters, nanosensors and alternative energy sources, and about the International Association of Advanced Materials award that she received in February at an event in Singapore. Watch.

maria del pilar

Reading Tips

  • Method for super-fast material development, based on artificial intelligence + “experiment factory”, leads to the discovery of new metallic glasses (paper by Science Advances). Know more.

  • Scientists propose material that is quasicrystal and superfluid at the same time (paper from Physical Review Letters). Know more.

  • Two-dimensional channels: Brazilian research provides a detailed description of the mechanisms by which graphene oxide membranes separate water from alcohol (paper from Carbon). Know more.

Opportunities

  • Call of the M-ERA NET network (European Union) and FAPESP for transnational projects of research and innovation in Materials. Know more.

Events

  • 6º Encontro Nacional de Engenharia Biomecânica (ENEBI 2018). Águas de Lindoia, SP (Brazil). 8 – 11 May, 2018. Site.

  • 2a Escola de Pesquisadores do campus USP São Carlos. São Carlos, SP (Brazil). 9 – 10 May, 2018. Site.

  • 8th International Symposium on Natural Polymers and Composites. São Pedro, SP (Brazil). 27 – 30 May, 2018. Site.

  • Photonic Colloidal Nanostructures: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications (PCNSPA 2018). São Petersburgo (Russia). 4 – 6 June, 2018. Site.

  • 7th International Congress on Ceramics (ICC7). Foz do Iguaçu, PR (Brazil). 17 – 21 June, 2018. Site.

  • IX Método Rietveld. Fortaleza, CE (Brazil). 16 – 20 July, 2018. Site.

  • International Conference on Electronic Materials 2018 (IUMRS-ICEM). Daejeon (South Korea). 19 – 24 August, 2018. Site.

  • Symposium “Nano-engineered coatings, surfaces and interfaces” no “XXVII International Materials Research Congress”. Cancun (Mexico). 19 – 24 August, 2018. Site.

  • 8th International Conference on Optical, Optoelectronic and Photonic Materials and Applications (ICOOPMA2018). Maresias, SP (Brazil). 26 – 31 August, 2018. Site.

  • 16th International Conference on Molecule-based Magnets (ICMM2018). Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). 1 – 5 September, 2018. Site.

  • XVII B-MRS Meeting. Natal, RN (Brazil). 16 – 20 September, 2018. Site.

  • XXXIX Congresso Brasileiro de Aplicações de Vácuo na Indústria e na Ciência (CBrAVIC). Joinville, SC (Brazil). 8 – 11 October, 2018. Site.

  • São Paulo School of Advanced Science on Colloids (SPSAS Colloids). Campinas, SP (Brazil). 28 October – 7 November, 2018. Site.

  • International Conference of Young Researchers on Advanced Materials (ICYRAM 2018). Adelaide (Australia). 4 – 8 November, 2018. Site.

  • 6th Meeting on Self Assembly Structures In Solution and at Interfaces. São Pedro, SP (Brazil). 7 – 9 November, 2018. Site.

  • 3rd International Brazilian Conference on Tribology (TriboBR 2018). Florianópolis, SC (Brazil). 3 – 5 December, 2018. Site.

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You can suggest news, opportunities, events or reading tips in the Materials field to be covered by B-MRS Newsletter. Write to comunicacao@sbpmat.org.br.
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Featured scientist: interview with Prof. Oscar Manoel Loureiro Malta.

DSC_4269CMYK-Photo 1Brazil, besides having one of the world’s largest reserves of ores with lanthanide elements, also occupies a prominent place in the research of these elements and their compounds, which have significant applicability in strategic areas such as energy, health and catalysis, as well as in many other areas.

One of the most prominent Brazilian scientists in this research field is Oscar Manoel Loureiro Malta, born in the city of Recife (state of Pernambuco) 63 years ago. Malta is Professor at the Department of Fundamental Chemistry of the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). Over the course of four decades, he has made important contributions to the research on lanthanides, both in the fundamental and applied fields.

Malta defined his interest in science during his high school years. In 1974, he started the Chemical Engineering course at UFPE and the Physics course at the Catholic University of Pernambuco. After completing his degree in Physics, he left the Chemistry course to join the Master’s degree in Physics at UFPE. There he carried out research work on spectroscopy of lanthanide compounds, mentored by Professor Gilberto Fernandes de Sá. In December of 1977, he obtained the master’s degree. He continued his studies on lanthanide spectroscopy in his doctorate at the University of Paris VI (France), also known as Pierre et Marie Curie Université, guided by Professor Yves Jeannin. He obtained his doctorate in March 1981. He then returned to Recife, where that same year he became professor at UFPE. In 1986, he returned to France for one year as a visiting researcher in the group of Paul Caro, a world-renowned scientist in the lanthanide area, linked to the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).

Oscar Malta was visiting professor in several international institutions: University of Wroclaw (Poland) in 2015; University of Aveiro (Portugal) in 2005; Industrial University of Santander (Colombia) in 2000; University of São Paulo, USP, in 1995, 1996 and 1999, and Paulista State University Júlio de Mesquita Neto, UNESP, in 1994-95 and 1998.

At UFPE, he participated in the creation and consolidation of the Department of Fundamental Chemistry, where he served as department head (1987-89) and postgraduate coordinator (1991-93 and 1999-2001). He was also the coordinator of two national research networks: the National Network of Molecular Nanotechnology and Interfaces, RENAMI (2001 – 2009), and the National Institute of Science and Technology for Integrated Markers, INAMI (2009-2015).

Malta has received a number of acknowledgments for his scientific trajectory. On November 15, 2017, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Wroctaw, an important institution in Poland where nine Nobel laureates have emerged. In 2016, a special edition of the Journal of Luminescence (publisher Elsevier) on lanthanide spectroscopy was dedicated to this researcher from Pernambuco (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2015.11.024). In 2015, Malta received the Ricardo Ferreira Award for Scientific Merit, recently created by the Foundation for Science and Technology of Pernambuco, Facepe. In 2014, he received the Professor Paulo José Duarte Medal from the Brazilian Chemistry Association. In 2003, he became a full member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, ABC.

In this year, Malta was chairman of the International Conference on Luminescence (ICL), which, after seventeen editions in the northern hemisphere, was held in the Brazilian city of João Pessoa.

With a productivity research grant 1A of CNPq, Oscar Malta is the author of approximately 180 papers published in international journals, with about 7,000 citations in the Web of Science. The scientist has a 42 H index.

Here is our interview with Oscar Manoel Loureiro Malta.

SBPMat newsletter: What do you believe are your main contributions to the Materials area and why do you consider them more relevant?

Oscar Malta:  Since my master’s degree, which I started in 1977, my work has been in the areas of theoretical chemistry, binding field theory, 4f-4f spectral intensities, non-radioactive energy transfer, in particular intramolecular energy transfer in coordination compounds with lanthanide ions whose theory I developed between 1996 and 1998 and which until today I continue working on, as well as several groups in Brazil and abroad. Over the last three decades, in a work that involves great and extraordinary synergy between theory and experiment, we have been able to construct a very successful scheme for the modeling of highly functional luminescent lanthanide ion coordination compounds with the potential for diverse applications such as luminescent markers in bioassays. Many of these results were obtained during the time I coordinated two national nanotechnology networks. The first, National Network of Molecular Nanotechnology and Interfaces (RENAMI), was in force from 2001 to 2009, the second, the National Institute of Science and Technology for Integrated Markers (inct-INAMI), was in force from 2009 to 2015. Coupled to these results two important themes were also developed: the effect of metal nanoparticle plasmas on the luminescence of compounds with lanthanide ions, a subject that is currently linked to the so-called plasmon, and the concept of polarizability of the coating region in the chemical bond as a way to quantify covalence, which I introduced between 2002 and 2005 in order to better understand the chemical bond involving 4f orbitals. This concept was subsequently generalized to any chemical bonding, from single molecules to complex materials. In all these results it is important to emphasize the students’ participation, from scientific initiation to the doctorate.

SBPMat Bulletin:  You started researching in the field of lanthanide ion compounds spectroscopy in your master’s degree, 40 years ago, and you’re still working in the area. What most appeals to you in this research topic? Is it still a promising area? What has changed in the research in this area in Brazil since the 1970s so far?

Oscar Malta:  Lanthanides and their compounds are fascinating. They took me into the world of theoretical chemistry, in the world of angular momentum algebra, in the world of the interaction of radiation with matter, and into the world of spectroscopy. When I finished my master’s degree, everything was in place for me to go on to do a doctorate in England to work in atomic physics. At that time he was in Recife, at the invitation of Gilberto Sá and Ricardo Ferreira, Paul Caro, one of the most renowned researchers in lanthanide spectroscopy. He presented a seminar that really impressed me. I gave up on going to England and went to work for Paul Caro’s group at CNRS in Meudon-Bellevue in France. At first the plan was to develop an experimental thesis. However, I wanted to work on the theory. Paul Caro accepted this without problems, and a very fruitful theory/experiment interaction emerged that extended to other groups and continues to this day, always with much to do from a fundamental point of view and from the point of view of applications. Brazil is one of the world leaders in this field, with extremely active and internationally recognized research groups in the country. In fact there is again a discussion about the production of lanthanides since Brazil is a country rich with the minerals of these elements, so important for today’s technology and undoubtedly for the future. We cannot overlook this.

SBPMat Bulletin: Now we invite you to leave a message for the readers who are starting their scientific careers.

Oscar Malta:  There is now a strong tendency of young researchers (I am referring to the scientific area under consideration here) to exacerbate the value of applied science in a short-sighted manner. As a result they forget the theoretical foundations and they often do not know the history of the subject, even the experimental history, that they work with or intend to work with. It is exhausting (a fact) to notice this in scientific meetings and I usually am amazed. This is like a linear inflationary process in which money is thrown into the market without having a stabilizer. Sooner or later it ends up in trouble, problems whose creative solutions (an assumption that must accompany a scientist) could be found if greater investment had been deposited in the theoretical foundation and greater attention given to the history of the situation at hand. Therefore, with respect to this question, my message is: do not neglect good theoretical formation and the knowledge of the origin of the subject with which you intend to work. Countries that are now developing and exporting good technology realize how important this is.

SBPMat Bulletin: Feel free to share other comments with our community.

Oscar Malta: Science and technology are more than ever a social activity that requires creativity (as always), training, and therefore education, dedication and strong interdisciplinary cooperation. And it requires investments. Without these ingredients, coupled with sound and sensible ethics committees, we will not be able to create intelligent and reliable science and technology policies that will ensure the continuation of human civilization. The great astronomer Carl Sagan said that not taking these ingredients seriously and the notion that five billion years from now our solar system will have been burned (by our red giant), we will have no chance of getting out of here. This sounds like science fiction, but it’s not. Hopefully the next generations, especially our leaders, will realize this. But I am optimistic in this regard, like a great neuroscientist (Miguel Nicolelis) who wrote “Beyond Boundaries”, which I recommend to my colleagues in Materials Science – especially with respect to emerging properties.

Featured paper: Traveling on a random way to emit ultraviolet laser light.

Paper: Multi-photon excited coherent random laser emission in ZnO powders. Dominguez, CT; Gomes, MA; Macedo, ZS; de Araujo, CB; Gomes, ASL. Nanoscale, 2015, 7, 317-323. DOI: 10.1039/C4NR05336B.

A team of Brazilian scientists developed a random-type laser (random laser) that opens new possibilities of applications for this type of device, especially in medicine. The novelty was reported in an article recently published on the scientific journal Nanoscale.

In a laser, the light is generated by the emission of photons in cascade effect: electrons properly stimulated emit photons, which stimulate new electrons that emit other photons, which stimulate other electrons and so on. In order to have a laser working, it is required to have more excited electrons than non-excited ones – situation which is called “population inversion”.

In the conventional laser, the population inversion only occurs when the light is confined in a “gain medium”, which is confined within an arrangement of parallel mirrors, known as optical cavity. In such gain medium, the light goes and comes, stimulating electrons and generating the cascade effect explained above. But in the random laser, the confinement of the light occurs due to the strong scattering performed by nanometric particles that are embedded in the gain medium material. An optical cavity is not needed in this case. Before leaving the random laser, the light travels a long random path producing stimulated emission. If at the end of the path, the light comes back to its original scattering center, it is a random laser of coherent feedback.

In the work reported in Nanoscale, the authors used zinc oxide (ZnO) powder as gain medium. Its particles also worked as scatterers. The material was synthesized by a green and low-cost method, called proteic sol-gel, following an innovative route based on the use of coconut water in the polymerization stage of the metallic precursor. The process generated a compound of quality equivalent to the one produced by traditional manners.

“Our team developed for the first time a random laser with coherent feedback emitting ultraviolet light, from a powder composed by sub-micrometric particles of ZnO, using optical excitation in the infrared,”, summarizes Christian Tolentino Dominguez, first author of the article published in Nanoscale.

According to him, the work opens possibilities for several applications of the random laser light; for example, in the activation of fluorophores or drugs for therapeutic use, as lighting source to obtain high quality biomedical images, and also as lighting source in optical coherence tomography (OCT) devices, pico projectors, and cinema projectors.

The team also obtained experimental evidence to state that the emission of UV of the random laser of ZnO powder was induced by the simultaneous absorption of 3 photons in the near infrared region. “Due to its broad band gap (~3.37 eV), the ZnO is virtually transparent at visible light, but its conduction band may be accessed by electrons excited by light with wavelenght located in the the near infrared region, by a non-linear optical process that involves the absorption of several photons in a simultaneous manner”, explains Tolentino.

(a) and (b) Images of electronic scanning microscope showing the particles of ZnO in different magnifications, (c) X-ray diffraction of the particles, (d) Scheme showing the experimental configuration, (e) Emission spectra at different excitation energies and curves showing the characterization of the random laser: band narrowing and non-linear behavior due to the excitation energy.

The work was developed, mainly, in the Photonics and Biophotonics Laboratory at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), headed by Professors Anderson Gomes e Cid B. de Araújo. It was carried out during a post-doctoral internship of Christian Tolentino, who currently works in the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, also at UFPE. The synthesis of the particles was performed by the group of Advanced Ceramic Materials at the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS), headed by the Professor Zélia Soares Macedo.

The research was funded by the Brazilian national research foundation (CNPq) and by the Pernambuco state research foundation (FACEPE). It was held in the context of the National Institute of Science and Technology in Photonics, which has performed active research in the area of random laser, having several papers.

Concurso para professor adjunto na UFPE em Engenharia de Reabilitação.

O Departamento de Engenharia Biomédica da UFPE está realizando concurso para professor adjunto, com regime de dedicação exclusiva para a área de Engenharia da Reabilitação. Solicitamos a ampla divulgação do mesmo.

INSCRIÇÕES: As inscrições ocorrerão no período de 12 de Fevereiro a 14 de Março de 2014, exceto sábados, domingos e feriados, para entrega da documentação exigida.

Edital de Condições Gerais: Edital Nº 05/2014,

http://www.ufpe.br/progepe/images/progepe/documentos/CCD/edital%2005%202014%20professor%20adjunto.pdf

Edital Complementar: Biomédica: Engenharia de Reabilitação

www.ufpe.br/progepe/images/progepe/documentos/CCD/edital%20complementar%20ctg%20eng%20biomedica%20reabilitacao.pdf

UFPE – Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (www.ufpe.br)