Márcia Dias RodriguesBorello: pride and passion for workMárcia Dias Rodrigues
“Se son fiori, fioriranno.” The Italian phrase often repeated by physicist Thereza Borello-Lewin can also be used to summarize her career in Brazilian nuclear physics. “If they are flowers, they will bloom” conveys the confidence that with rigor and commitment, her studies and the studies of her students would be a success. After dedicating 60 years to research and teaching in physics, primarily at the magnetic spectrograph of the Pelletron particle accelerator, the retired senior professor from the Physics Institute at the University of São Paulo (IF-USP) died of a heart attack on May 28, at the age of 82.
Borello’s family moved to Brazil from Italy in the mid-1920s, settling in São Paulo. Her father, Luiz Borello, was a physics teacher at Dante Alighieri College, and her sister, Ottavia Borello Filisetti (1931–2015), graduated in physics from USP in 1952, where she was later a professor. “Thereza was very inspired by them both. She would quote Italian phrases that she learned from her father, always striving to hold her head up high and overcome any challenges she faced,” recalls USP physicist Cleber Lima Rodrigues.
In 1963, Borello completed her degree at IF-USP. “She was diplomatic, but she certainly encountered obstacles; at the time, there was a lot of discrimination against women in physics,” says USP physicist Alinka Lepine Szily. “We were willing to work hard and build our careers, but men had a hard time accepting that — they didn’t want the competition.”
It was at IF that Borello met a former student of her father’s, the physicist César Lattes (1924–2005). After graduating, she joined Lattes’s research group and studied cosmic rays until he moved to the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in 1967. In the same year, physicist Ernst Hamburger (1933–2018) returned to USP after completing his PhD at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, where he worked at a particle accelerator similar to the one planned for São Paulo. Borello took the opposite route and went to the American institution to collect data for her PhD. She defended her thesis, supervised by Hamburger, in 1971.
Work at the Enge
The following year, the Pelletron electrostatic accelerator was inaugurated at the IF. The device propels energized atoms (ions) at about 20% of the speed of light, so that they collide with atomic nuclei, revealing details about the structure of the particles. An Enge magnetic spectrograph was installed next to the Pelletron to study the effects of subatomic particle bombardment on various materials.
“I played an important role in the installation of the Enge. The equipment weighs 30 tons and is installed within extremely restrictive electrical, geometric, rotational, and vacuum conditions to ensure optimal functioning,” said Borello in the ebook 50 anos do acelerador de partícula Pelletron – Vozes de uma história (50 years of the Pelletron particle accelerator – Voices of history; IF-USP, 2022). After doing a postdoctorate at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, in 1973, Borello led the Nuclear Spectroscopy with Light Ions research group at the Laboratory of Nuclear Emulsions and Other Techniques.
“I started my undergraduate research with Thereza and completed my master’s and doctorate with her,” says Márcia Dias Rodrigues, a physicist from Texas A&M University, USA. “She was a rigorous researcher who cared deeply about her students. She dedicated herself to her work with great pride and passion, which drew many people to her.”
On Borello’s initiative, USP maintains a partnership with the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Catania, Italy. In 2018, physicist Marcilei Aparecida Guazzelli of FEI University Center was present for Borello’s last scientific visit to the Italian accelerator’s spectrograph. Experiments at the research center take place over several days, with researchers taking turns to collect data on eight-hour shifts. “Despite no longer being able to move around so well, Thereza made a point of completing her entire shift.”
According to Guazzelli, Borello had a typical characteristic of her generation of female physicists: “They fought for recognition as scientists and they kept fighting until the end,” she says. “People have no idea how complicated it is, even today, to be a woman in a predominantly male field like nuclear physics. She is a shining example for all women in science.” Borello leaves behind her husband, Fernando Herbert Lewin.
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