Three Unicamp professors were elected to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) – one of the oldest scientific associationsists of the country, focusing on scientific development. Ana Flávia Nogueira was elected as full members in the area of Chemical Sciences and, in the area of Agricultural Sciences, professor Anete Pereira de Souza. As an affiliate member from the São Paulo region, professor Leonardo Tomazeli Duarte was elected. The Affiliate Membership is reserved for scientists up to 40 years old who promise to have a promising career. Those elected take office on January 1, 2023, but full members will receive a corresponding diploma on May 10, during ABC's main meeting.
See the full list of those elected.
Founded in 1916, ABC has a staff of approximately 900 members and has a particularity. Does not receive self-applications. No person or institution can apply for membership in the ABC. Candidates for collaborative members and institutional members are exclusively recommended by the board members.
ABC covers ten areas of specialization: Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Earth Sciences, Biological Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, Engineering Sciences and Social Sciences.
Ana Flavia Nogueira
Full professor at the Chemistry Institute (IQ) at Unicamp, Ana Flávia Nogueira has experience in the application of nanomaterials for the conversion of solar energy. Current director of the Center for Innovation in New Energies (Cine), she works on topics such as light-emitting diodes (LED), green hydrogen generation and emerging solar cells – especially perovskite solar cells, a mineral used to generate electrical energy from sunlight.
“It is with immense gratitude and also a feeling of enormous responsibility that I received the news of my election to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences”, said the professor. “Gratitude for representing the recognition of a lot of dedication and some moments of sacrifice, both on my part and on my family’s part. I thank my students and peers,” she added.
“Brazilian science has enormous challenges in its path, such as the energy transition, gender imbalance and the fight against fake news and disinformation. What gives me confidence in the face of these challenges is the excellence of ABC and its members. Thank you very much”, concluded the professor who, in 2017, completed a sabbatical at SLAC-Stanford (USA) in the area of application of synchrotron light in the characterization of materials for energy conversion.
Anete Pereira de Souza
Agricultural engineer graduated from the “Luiz de Queiroz” School of Agriculture at the University of São Paulo (Esalq\USP), with a doctorate in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the Paris XI University (France), Anete Pereira de Souza is one of the greatest Brazilian experts in area of molecular plant improvement. She worked on several cooperation projects with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), the Campinas Agronomic Institute, international institutions and private organizations.
Despite her extensive experience in the area, Anete said she was surprised by the nomination. “I was very surprised, because I never thought about it,” she said. “Of course, I was very happy with the nomination and then with the election, but I am already very happy in my activity. I love working with students. I have supervised more than 50 doctoral students. In the master's degree, there were more than 30, in addition to doing a lot of collaboration, with a lot of people. This makes me happy”, said she, who is a full professor at the Department of Plant Biology at Unicamp in the area of Plant Genetics.
For the last 28 years he has worked in teaching, research and training undergraduate and postgraduate students. He also supervised several undergraduates, postgraduates and young researchers (post-doctors) totaling more than 180 people trained in the Genetic and Molecular Analysis Laboratory with his direct involvement.
He coordinated different scientific projects involving genetics and genomics of plant species of agronomic and ecological interest and microorganisms (fungi, bacteria and protists). It maintains collaboration with different national and international groups (from England, France, Germany, Holland, USA, Scotland) that work in the main areas of its research, the main one being genetic variation in plants and fungi through molecular improvement, biotechnology, genetics , genomics and bioinformatics.
Leonardo Tomazeli Duarte
An electrical engineer by training, Leonardo Tomazeli Duarte has a master's degree from Unicamp and a doctorate from the Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble (Grenoble INP – Université Grenoble Alpes, France). Since 2021, he has worked as an advisor to the Dean of Research (PRP) at Unicamp.
“I am very happy and honored with this election”, said he, who is scientific coordinator of the "Method" track and leader of the scientific tracks at BI0S (Brazilian Institute of Data Science), an Applied Research Center in Artificial Intelligence that recently entered into operation at Unicamp. For the professor, this participation in BI0S may have been fundamental for his appointment as an affiliate member of ABC.
“I suppose that my participation in BI0S had a very strong influence on the nomination of my name, because this work being developed at Unicamp is of great importance”, says he, who says he is also very interested in the issues of ethics in Science. Data – one of the lines of research to be addressed by BI0S.
