Executive Community

The CeRTEV executive committee will be composed of the center director, the vice director, the technology transfer coordinator, and the education and outreach coordinator. Three members of this team - Zanotto, E. Ferreira and Rodrigues - have been working together for more than 20 years! Prof. Eckert has already collaborated extensively with seven of the principal and associate investigators during the past five years. Since 2007, these activities have comprised the mutual exchange (3-6 months) of seven doctoral and master students (3 from São Carlos, 4 from Münster) and seven externally funded Visiting Professorships (FAPESP, CNPq, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation), producing thus far 16 publications in internationally renowned journals. Following his move from Germany to São Carlos during the last year he has also started collaboration with the LaMaV group dedicated to the use of solid state NMR techniques for measuring nucleation kinetics in lithium disilicate glass-ceramics. One PhD student from Eckert’s group has just finished a 3 month internship at LaMaV – where she did some crystallization research - and took several samples with her for NMR analysis in Germany. On the research side, the director and vice director share common interests about glass science, such as the interrelationships between glass structure, transport processes and crystallization, and their research qualifications and expertise nicely complement each other. All the 14 members of the core team, which include the executive committee members, work either at USP or UFSCar and live in the same town! The executive committee will thus easily meet at least once a month to discuss the strategic planning of the CEPIV.

The experienced technology transfer coordinator (Eduardo Ferreira) will be directly assisted by other three seasoned members: Paulo Ignacio (manager), Edgar Zanotto and Oscar Peitl who have rich experience in technology transfer issues: they have already filed several patents, worked for several years in FAPESP’s patent office - Nuplitec (Zanotto), and have negotiated with dozens of industries about joint projects of technological nature, technology transfer and royalties. Dr. Ignacio is currently the director of UFSCar’s Innovation Agency - responsible for patenting and licensing of all the relevant technology generated here.

The education and outreach coordinator (Ana Rodrigues) will be assisted directly by Luiz Henrique Ferreira, Pedro Rino, Marcelo Nalin and Andrea de Camargo. The offices and laboratories of the first 3 researchers are within 5 minutes of each other; they are highly motivated and have previous experience with different educational endeavors. Ana Rodrigues is the Brazilian representative at the Technical Commission - Education & Training in Glass Science & Engineering – of the International Commission on Glass. Luis Ferreira has devoted his academic career to research to chemistry teaching.

In summary, the executive committee is composed of motivated people, who have previously collaborated with each other, live and work in the same town, and will regularly meet to make sure the overall strategic planning of the CEPIV is properly updated and followed.