{"id":5065,"date":"2016-11-29T14:38:02","date_gmt":"2016-11-29T17:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sbpmat.org.br\/?p=5065"},"modified":"2017-01-25T21:07:56","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T00:07:56","slug":"historia-da-pesquisa-em-materiais-no-brasil-40-anos-do-primeiro-laboratorio-de-pesquisa-em-vidros-do-brasil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sbpmat.org.br\/en\/historia-da-pesquisa-em-materiais-no-brasil-40-anos-do-primeiro-laboratorio-de-pesquisa-em-vidros-do-brasil\/","title":{"rendered":"History of materials research in Brazil: 40 years of the first glass research laboratory in Brazil."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"boxlamav_en\"<\/a>Brazil’s first laboratory dedicated to the study of vitreous materials completes 40 years in December 2016. This laboratory, which began its activities with only a small muffle furnace with temperature up to 1100 \u00b0C, today has 18 ovens, 4 which reach 1750 \u00b0C, and also thirty instruments\u00a0to manufacture and characterize glasses distributed over 500 m2. The anniversary in question is LaMaV<\/a>\u00b4s (Vitreous Materials Laboratory), of the Department of Materials Engineering (DEMa) at the Federal University of S\u00e3o Carlos (UFSCar).<\/p>\n

On the 40th anniversary of LaMaV, the team declares it is fully satisfied with its achievements [see box beside]. The pioneering work of the laboratory was essential in generating, disseminating and applying scientific knowledge on glass in the country, in academia and in industry. \u201cWe prepared about a hundred masters, doctors and post-docs, who now work as professors and researchers at major institutions such as USP, UFSCar, ITA, UEPG, UEMa, UFBa, PUC, IPT, CEFET, UFF, UNESP, UFLavras, UFABC, CTA, UNIOESTE and in other institutions in Brazil and abroad, and in numerous companies. This is a very important legacy! \u201d said Edgar Dutra Zanotto, one of the founders of SBPMat and the Materials Research journal, who founded LaMaV and heads\u00a0it until today.<\/p>\n

But the efforts and results of LaMaV go beyond national borders, since it always featured internationality. The laboratory has received students and visiting professors from dozens of countries. Its team has brought to Brazil the most important international conferences on glasses, it participates in the editorial boards of almost all major specialized journals on vitreous materials and has received seven of the most prestigious international awards and honors of the area \u2013 in addition to more than 20 national awards, including the Almirante \u00c1lvaro Alberto* award. The group research, especially that on nucleation and crystallization of glasses and glass ceramics, is recognized worldwide. \u201cA significant part of active researchers in this area have heard, attended a lecture or read an article or patent resulting from our research. We have indeed put the city of S\u00e3o Carlos and Brazil on the world map of glass research!\u201d adds Zanotto.<\/p>\n

LaMaV is currently very active on glass crystallization issues, structural relaxation and residual stress processes, glass ceramics, biomaterials, and mechanical, rheological, electrical and biochemical properties of vitreous materials. \u201cToday we have an impressive laboratory and excellent financing, mainly from FAPESP (the S\u00e3o Paulo State research foundation) but also from Capes, CNPq (federal funding agencies) and some companies. However, the endless bureaucracy of the funding agencies for purchasing materials and equipment, the accountability and also the uncertainties related to the future of universities (e.g., austerity measure PEC 55 and others), coupled with the shortage of secretaries, technicians and engineers (lab managers) to assist in the organization and maintenance of laboratories, have always been and continue to be formidable obstacles,\u201d ponders Zanotto.<\/p>\n

The making of…<\/strong><\/p>\n

It all began on December 15, 1976, when Zanotto was hired as assistant professor at DEMa-UFSCar. His main objective was to start glass research work in the department.\u00a0 In 1970, the first undergraduate course in Latin America in Materials Engineering was created, and two years later DEMa was created. By 1976 the department already had research groups in metals, polymers and ceramics, but no one worked with glasses, Zanotto remembers. \u201cThe creation of LaMaV was a natural outcome of setting up the undergraduate course in Materials Engineering at UFSCar,\u201d declares Professor Zanotto.<\/p>\n

At the end of 1976, Edgar Zanotto was a newly graduated materials engineer (at UFSCar) who had just completed scientific initiation research work under the guidance of visiting Professor Osgood James Whittemore, researcher in the area of ceramic materials of the University of Washington (USA). \u201cMy undergraduate research carried out that year, focused on the chemical durability (leach) of candidate glasses for the encapsulation of radioactive waste,\u201d recalls Zanotto. \u201cAnd, amazingly, this subject is still hot! \u201d, he adds.<\/p>\n

Soon after being hired, Zanotto created LaMaV. The first experiments \u2013 carried out by Zanotto himself \u2013 consisted of melting glass at low melting point, using a muffle furnace and a platinum crucible (recipient that can be used at high temperatures), borrowed from the chemical analysis laboratory of the university.<\/p>\n

In 1977, the founder of LaMaV started the Master\u2019s program in Physics at the Institute of Physics and Chemistry at S\u00e3o Carlos (IFQSC) of USP, under the guidance of Professor Aldo Craievich, who was probably the only scientist active in the glass area in Brazil before 1976. In fact, he is the author of the first two papers on glasses signed by researchers from Brazilian institutions, both published in 1975. During the Master, Zanotto produced and thermally treated glasses (to generate crystallization) at LaMaV, carried out microscopic investigation at the DEMa metallurgy laboratory, and characterized glasses by XRD and SAXS at IFQSC-USP. Zanotto finished his Master\u2019s research work and defended the dissertation a year and a half later. That same year he began his doctorate, also in the area of glasses, at the University of Sheffield (UK), under the supervision of the famous Professor Peter James. In 1982, having defended his doctorate, Zanotto returned to LaMaV.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the first 10 to 15 years, isolated work, inexperience and the uncertainties and difficulties associated with the mercurial research funding, in addition to the reduced physical space and little laboratory infrastructure disrupted our activities\u201d, recalls Zanotto. Nearly a decade after the laboratory was created, the second Professor of the group was hired, Oscar Peitl Filho, Zanotto\u2019s former master’s and doctoral student. A few years later, Ana Candida Martins Rodrigues became the third professor of the LaMaV team. Then in 2013, Marcello Andreeta was hired. \u201cToday we are 4 teachers, 1 technician, 1 administrative assistant and about 30 research students and post-docs, 7 from other countries,\u201d says Zanotto.<\/p>\n

The year of 2013 was a milestone in the history of LaMaV due to the approval by FAPESP and the beginning of activities of CeRTEV<\/a> (Center for Research, Technology and Education in Vitreous Materials). Directed by Zanotto, CeRTEV brings together LaMaV (headquarters of the center) and other laboratories from UFSCar, USP and UNESP, to conduct research, development and education activities in the field of vitreous materials, with funding from FAPESP until 2024. \u201cWith CeRTEV, we have established one of the largest academic research groups on glass on this planet, with world-class infrastructure, 14 professors and about 60 research students!”, acclaims Zanotto.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, if I could return to December 1976, with the experience accumulated over these 40 years, I believe I’d do it all over again, but more efficiently!\u201d, expresses the founder of LaMaV.<\/p>\n

\"Doctoral<\/a>
Doctoral students from 28 countries attending the “Glass and glass-ceramics school” at LaMaV, August, 2015.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brazil’s first laboratory dedicated to the study of vitreous materials completes 40 years in December 2016. This laboratory, which began its activities with only a small muffle furnace with temperature up to 1100 \u00b0C, today has 18 ovens, 4 which reach 1750 \u00b0C, and also thirty instruments\u00a0to manufacture and characterize glasses distributed over 500 m2. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[209,483,105,1096,169,706,12,15,309,100,628,485],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sbpmat.org.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5065"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sbpmat.org.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sbpmat.org.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sbpmat.org.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sbpmat.org.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5065"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sbpmat.org.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5115,"href":"https:\/\/www.sbpmat.org.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5065\/revisions\/5115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sbpmat.org.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sbpmat.org.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sbpmat.org.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}