{"id":151284,"date":"2014-05-20T20:32:10","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T23:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=151284"},"modified":"2014-06-20T20:34:30","modified_gmt":"2014-06-20T23:34:30","slug":"bavaria-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/bavaria-presidency\/","title":{"rendered":"From Bavaria to the presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"KlausEduardo Cesar<\/span>At 45, German physicist Klaus Capelle, recently installed as president of the Federal University of the ABC (UFABC), has taken an uncommon career path. He received his undergraduate, master\u2019s and doctoral degrees from the University of W\u00fcrzburg, an institution located in the small city of that name in northern Bavaria and whose history encompasses 600 years and 14 Nobel prizes. His 1993 master\u2019s dissertation and his 1997 doctoral thesis each won the best-of-the-year award from the university\u2019s School of Physics and Astronomy. As an expert in condensed matter physics and quantum chemistry, Capelle had the academic credentials to go on to a successful career in his native country.<\/p>\n

But soon after completing his doctorate, he opted for a grant to study in a tropical country where he could spend vacations in the 1990s. \u201cBrazil\u2019s reputation in Germany was good and I knew that the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP) was an excellent university,\u201d says the physicist. \u201cI thought it would be a big challenge to go to a country with a different culture and a younger science program than Germany\u2019s.\u201d Capelle landed at the S\u00e3o Carlos Institute of Physics (IFSC-USP) in 1997 with the initial idea of doing post-doctoral studies under Professor Luiz Nunes de Oliveira, and then returning to Europe after a year. It did not turn out that way. From 1999 to 2003 he was a FAPESP Young Investigator grant recipient at the S\u00e3o Carlos Chemistry Institute at USP. During that period and in the years following, he also spent time as a visiting researcher at the universities of Missouri in the US, Bristol in the UK, Lund in Sweden and Livre in Berlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could have gone back to Germany, or to the University of Bristol where I had been invited, but I decided to stay in Brazil,\u201d says Capelle, who was a professor at IFSC from 2003 to 2009. \u201cIn Europe I would just be refining an existing organized system, perhaps working at a university with a centuries-old history. Here I can help build something new.\u201d The ability to improvise and be flexible in the face of adversity\u2014qualities normally associated with Brazilian researchers\u2014is one of the national traits most attractive to Capelle, who has written more than 90 papers published in scientific journals and serves as a reviewer and editorial board member for several publications.<\/span><\/p>\n

The German physicist was set for a long career at IFSC. But in 2009 he once again decided to invest his energies in something new. He left his job at USP and took a position as full professor at UFABC, the recently-created institution in Santo Andr\u00e9, in the S\u00e3o Paulo metropolitan area. At UFABC, in addition to his work as a professor and researcher, Capelle decided to develop his skill as a manager. From 2010 until January 2014, he held the position of Dean of Research at the university. In February he became its president, having been elected to the position in December 2013. \u201cThe title of president describes not what I am, but what I do,\u201d comments the physicist, whose wife is a Brazilian trained in the field of occupational therapy. \u201cIt is a gratifying experience. As a professor, I could obtain a scholarship for a single student. As a dean, I could do that for 100. As president, the scale of benefits I can provide for students becomes even greater.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German physicist heads one of Brazil\u2019s newest universities","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1204],"tags":[226,235],"coauthors":[785],"class_list":["post-151284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-careers","tag-education","tag-physics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151284"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=151284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}