Bachelor degree - Universidade do Vale do Paraíba

I graduated in Chemical Engineering in 2016.

I had chosen this course because in the year before starting it I graduated in the chemical technical course and the love for this science made me wish to keep studying these subjects. I had chosen Engineering and not Chemistry because I thought that this course could give me more coverage in others topics, as physics and industrial processes. In the first period of the undergraduate I visited the laboratories at Instituto de Pesquisa & Desenvolvimento (IP&D) of UNIVAP and chose to join the Laboratório de Nanossensores. The visit to this lab was my first contact with nanotechnology, and the possibility of developing such small things, but that can be used to, from cosmetics to curing diseases, made my eyes shine! I think that in that moment my wish of being useful to the society started. Then I decided to join the Scientific Initiation program, and in the beggining I worked as volunteer; later on I had been given scholarships from Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (CNPq) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP).

Graduation, São José dos Campos, Brazil - 2017.

During the scientific initiation I worked with gold nanoparticles for 2,5 years, I learned a lot, won awards, fell in love for nanotechnology. However, in the middle of the undergraduation I felt it was time to change and decided, to my final work, to use another kind of nanomaterial. Then I remembered that in the first year of research the supervisor had said something about magnetic nanoparticles and I started to search about them. I was amazed, wanted to synthesize them, work with them, something boosted me to try to produce them, a huge wish to have in my hands that black liquid that interacts with magnets. The supervisor asked if I was sure I wanted to do it, because we didn't know anybody who worked with this material, and therefore we would have to learn by ourselves. He also warned me that magnetism was a very particular area of physics (something kind of complicated). But I decided to keep going with my objective. I made the first batches of syntheses, started to understand a little about how to work with these nanoparticles, wrote my final work, and graduated.

I never worked as an Engineer (I mean, at factories). But I believe the ways the research provided me could not be others. During the undergraduate I participated in scientific events and improved reports writing and oral presentations, thanks to my "early" involvement with research. In the Engineering course I had not only the opportunity of engaging in a research lab, but also to have wonderful teachers in the college, who also taught me life lessons. I discovered my abilities in the academic profession and met my best friends!