{"id":237836,"date":"2017-05-16T16:06:30","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T19:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=237836\/"},"modified":"2017-05-16T16:06:30","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T19:06:30","slug":"jose-augusto-penteado-aranha-wave-engineer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/jose-augusto-penteado-aranha-wave-engineer\/","title":{"rendered":"Jos\u00e9 Augusto Penteado Aranha: Wave engineer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/024_entrevista_abre_249.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-237838\" src=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/024_entrevista_abre_249-681x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"451\" \/><span class=\"media-credits-inline\">L\u00c9O RAMOS<\/span><\/a>After earning an undergraduate degree in civil engineering, S\u00e3o Paulo native Jos\u00e9 Augusto Penteado Aranha spent 40 years working in the field of marine hydrodynamics, studying waves, ocean currents and their relationships with vessels, oil platforms and oil pipelines that connect those structures to wells at the bottom of the sea. He acquired a taste for the field while pursuing his master\u2019s and PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). \u00a0\u201cFluid mechanics and marine hydrodynamics are open fields that have many applications in other areas,\u201d Aranha explains.\u00a0 He led groups at the S\u00e3o Paulo Institute for Technological Research (IPT) from 1978 to 1989 before going to Poli-USP.\u00a0 He was among the first involved in studies regarding the behavior and relationship of waves to oil platforms, vessels and risers, the pipes that carry oil and gas to the surface.\u00a0 In this way, he contributed to Petrobras\u2019 oil exploration in waters deeper than 400 meters (m) in the mid-1980s, reaching ultra-deep waters at depths of more than 1,000 m in the 1990s. This capacity extended into the pre-salt layer beginning in 2008.<\/p>\n<p>Aranha has dedicated himself to developing an analytical method that enables consistent and economic estimation of the useful life of risers. The relationship between currents and risers leads to the alternating formation of vortices, which generate tension on the system and could lead to rupture of the pipes. When this occurs, oil and gas leak into the sea, causing catastrophic damage to the environment and significant financial losses.<\/p>\n<p>In his studies of mathematical modeling, he developed a formula for calculating the interaction of waves and ocean currents with oil platforms and vessels that became known as the Aranha Formula. It is used to calculate wave drift damping in deep waters.\u00a0 Even though his equation is now found in science manuals and despite his contribution to the oil industry, Aranha does not really like to talk about himself. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to, without saying something ridiculous,\u201d he says. Married to artist Carmen Sylvia Guimaraes Aranha of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) at USP with whom he has two children, Aranha is close to retirement, at age 67.\u00a0 He plans to continue his studies on wave dynamics and ocean currents.\u00a0 In recent years, he has been a vocal critic of the teaching of engineering.\u00a0 He does not agree with learning that focuses on utilitarianism, and instead advocates for a broad view in which students can discover ways of thinking that will lead to scientific development(s).<\/p>\n<table class=\"tabela_interna\" border=\"0\" align=\"left\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Age<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>67<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Specialty <\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Fluid mechanics and maritime hydrodynamics<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Education<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Bachelor\u2019s degree in civil engineering from the Polytechnic School of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (Poli-USP) in 1971. Master\u2019s and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 1973-1978<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Institution<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Poli-USP<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Scientific output <\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>30 articles, two books (as yet unpublished). Advised 12 master\u2019s candidates and five PhD candidates<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>You graduated in civil engineering and then dedicated yourself to marine hydrodynamics. Are the fields very different? <\/strong><br \/>\nI was not a very motivated student while at Poli. In my fourth year, I concluded that I\u2019d probably end up doing some bureaucratic job. So, I started to study what I\u2019d always liked \u2013 the more theoretical part of mathematics and physics.\u00a0 In the beginning, I was interested in mathematical modeling of structures and when I got to the United States to do my master\u2019s, I realized that fluid mechanics was a more interesting field because it is wide open, and has potential applications in other areas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is fluid mechanics an area of undergraduate physics that you also took courses in?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt\u2019s in applied physics. It has important interfaces and many physicists work with fluid mechanics, precisely because it is still an open field.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t complete the physics program.\u00a0 I took two years of night classes, in parallel with my engineering program, because at the time you could do that.\u00a0 I was also aware of the challenges Petrobras was facing.\u00a0 During my stay at MIT, I already knew that one of Brazil\u2019s potential fields would be oil exploration.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So you graduated and were hired by IPT? <\/strong><br \/>\nI was at IPT and times were different.\u00a0 I graduated in 1971, and now I tell my students that despite the adverse political climate at the time, Brazil believed in itself and the possibilities for work were much more open than they are now.\u00a0 When I interviewed at IPT, the interviewer asked me: \u201cWhat do you want to do at IPT?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI want to travel and study abroad.\u201d\u00a0 And this did not take me out of contention for the job because the perception was that people needed to be sent abroad.\u00a0 The IPT had a program for investing in researchers and the only prerequisite was having completed one\u2019s master\u2019s degree.\u00a0 But I didn\u2019t want to do my master\u2019s here.\u00a0 I used my own savings to travel, and that was just enough to spend six months in the U.S. I was convinced that at the end of the day, IPT would fund me, and it ended up funding the four years of doctoral studies.\u00a0 In the fifth year, I worked as a researcher at MIT, while Carmen finished up part of her doctorate at Boston University. That was a problem because they thought I didn\u2019t want to come back, but that never occurred to me.\u00a0 I never thought about living in the United States as a foreigner.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You formed a group that gave us the scientific basis for IPT\u2019s naval engineering, right?<\/strong><br \/>\nNo. Sometimes my sister would describe my father to people and he would say: \u201cThat\u2019s someone else\u2019s father, not me.\u201d From time to time our friends describe us and we don\u2019t recognize ourselves in the description.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if they were talking about another person.\u00a0 It\u2019s impossible to do anything without a group working together.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_237837\" style=\"max-width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/024_entevista_edu_0291_249jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-237837\" src=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/024_entevista_edu_0291_249jpg-300x208.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"208\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"media-credits-inline\">Personal archives<\/span><\/a> Aranha, in November 1973, while pursuing his PhD at MIT<span class=\"media-credits\">Personal archives<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>You spent a year at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) right? What year was that?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt was six months in 1987, using some bonus vacation time I had. They were having structural problems in building the satellite and they called on me.\u00a0 The problems were complicated but they had a professor from Poli, Gaspar Ricardo, who was a very well-qualified engineer and he\u2019d already found the solution they were looking for.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did it pertain to the satellites\u2019 orbit? <\/strong><br \/>\nIt was in the department of orbital engineering, I don\u2019t quite remember the name, but it was related to the physical structure of the satellite, because there were some vibrations and a series of things like that, so it was really an engineering job.\u00a0 It was the first Brazilian satellite, but then it was dismantled so I don\u2019t know how things ended up. Later I was named to the board of the Brazilian Space Agency.\u00a0 Actually, that was kind of an interesting story, because since I had a PhD from MIT, I was contacted about becoming the director of INPE.\u00a0 But I didn\u2019t feel comfortable accepting the position.\u00a0 That wasn\u2019t my field and I didn\u2019t think I would be able to provide the necessary leadership.<\/p>\n<p><strong>After INPE you went back to USP? \u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nFull-time, and then I went to the Naval Engineering Department where I spent several years that were very good personally and professionally.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And you led another naval engineering group, correct? <\/strong><br \/>\nI took part with others in some important projects.\u00a0 I was the head of the department when they started working on the numerical test tank [computer system inaugurated in 2002 to simulate the behavior of deep-water production platforms].\u00a0 Petrobras, which funded the project, thought that I should head up the tank, but I declined.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a question of technical competence, but rather of style.\u00a0 They needed to have someone who had a lot of political contacts and I don\u2019t really like that sort of thing, although I think it\u2019s necessary.\u00a0 Throughout my career, including at INPE, part of my institutional contribution \u2013 if I can say that I made such a contribution \u2013 were my absences. It was a case of declining something that I knew I was not going to like.<\/p>\n<p><strong>With regard to oil exploration, how was your first contact with Petrobras? How did you get into that field? <\/strong><br \/>\nIPT already had extensive contact with Petrobras. During the 1980s, it was IPT that led Brazil\u2019s naval engineering program, more so than COPPE [Institute for Graduate Studies and Engineering Research at UFRJ). When I got to USP in 1989, and there had already been contacts with the company, we started to strengthen this partnership and kept in touch with Petrobras so that it would maintain a continuous flow of projects in order for us to develop capability in Brazil.\u00a0 Somehow, it provided the department with nearly R$1 million per year, in today\u2019s currency, for several research projects.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What were Petrobras\u2019 requirements when looking to academia?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe main problem was with the open sea floating production system as well as the riser designs, which represented nearly one-third of the semi-submersible platform budget.\u00a0 There\u2019s wear and tear, interaction problems with the ocean current, with movements of floating bodies [semi-submersible platforms and systems], not to mention the FPSO vessels [floating, production, storage and offloading], which store and unload oil.\u00a0 These are huge structures that float on waves, and it is not just the riser but the floating system itself that needs to be anchored there.\u00a0 Another aspect involves the vessels that come into the area and work with the platform: we need to know the relative movement between the two, the waves\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>And where does mathematics come in?<\/strong><br \/>\nIn the mathematical modeling of the systems and the connection between the parts.\u00a0 Modeling here means translating physical reality into equations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Measuring waves and ocean currents? <\/strong><br \/>\nThere was some information available, but we needed to put together models that represented that and we verified the models through testing in the IPT wave tank. It was an interesting time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So the first riser was installed in 1998?\u00a0 What was that like?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt was the first rigid riser because up to that time, risers had been flexible and not suited to deep waters.\u00a0 Then you have the problem of useful life, fatigue, because of the oscillation of the sea and the ocean current itself.\u00a0 Generally, this oscillation doesn\u2019t break the riser, but it wears it down because of the considerable fatigue.\u00a0 It\u2019s like taking a wire and twisting it \u2013 after a while, it breaks.\u00a0 So we need to carefully quantify this type of thing because, besides environmental and operational reasons, there is also a question of accident insurance: the more imprecise our calculations to demonstrate proper system operation, the higher the insurance premium.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And Petrobras succeeded in becoming a leader in this field? <\/strong><br \/>\nThe company is scientifically well-regarded at the oil production and geophysics levels.\u00a0 I had my doubts about that, but took part in some workshops with people from abroad and they spoke very highly of Petrobras in these areas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did you end up making any recommendations to Petrobras for PROCAP (Technological Development Program for Deepwater Production)? <\/strong><br \/>\nWe did something that is not acknowledged.\u00a0 I was still at IPT when a group from there \u2013 including me \u2013 wanted to do a strategic research plan for Petrobras. We came up with a series of projects, scheduled a meeting with the president of Cenpes [Petrobras Research Center], Guilherme Estrella, and everyone was impressed with the project.\u00a0 Then the issue was somewhat tabled until PROCAP came along in 1986, and that sparked some techno-scientific policy discussion inside Petrobras.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What exactly did you propose? <\/strong><br \/>\nA comprehensive research plan.\u00a0 Defined projects mainly in the field of naval engineering. \u00a0Also in platforms, long-term studies, beyond five years, to be able to really create things, because it wasn\u2019t enough to have a six-month project, to hire people and then lay them off.\u00a0 That was our idea, as was thinking about going more into the research side rather than the service provision side.\u00a0 We thought we could get a more interesting return.\u00a0 The ideas were really well-received inside Petrobras, but then there was nothing, and then came PROCAP and our work was never mentioned again.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Were pre-salt operations a result of the company\u2019s technological competence?\u00a0 <\/strong><br \/>\nPetrobras is very competent in many areas, such as geophysics, and it has a high percentage of hits when it comes to successful oil exploration. It also has very competent employees.\u00a0 I remember a workshop I went to in Angra dos Reis, attended by Norwegians, Americans, French and English.\u00a0 There were some people from Petrobras, and very few from academia. A basic question came up about the mooring lines they had been using, which were all twisted and no one knew if they would last for the 20 years they were projected to last. A Norwegian fellow, in his presentation, talked about line tests and wasn\u2019t very clear how to extrapolate the line\u2019s behavior in terms of the twisting.\u00a0 After some discussion, the engineer Jos\u00e9 Formigli, who later became director of Petrobras, said to the audience: \u201cWe\u2019ve already resolved this problem: we\u2019ve performed our calculations and instead of 20 years, we\u2019re going to replace the cables every five years from now on and be done with it.\u201d And everyone just looked at him, baffled by such a simple solution.\u00a0 Later I joked with Formigli: \u201cIt\u2019s true, when it comes to chaotic brainstorming, we\u2019re unbeatable.\u201d But I also thought that the Norwegian could have run the tests and then developed a line that would become part of an innovative cable that could be sold all over the world. I don\u2019t know if he ever managed to do that, but I bet he spent a long time testing the line.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is Aranha\u2019s Formula? How did it come about and what were its repercussions? <\/strong><br \/>\nIt didn\u2019t require a lot of calculations, just getting some known physics concepts right.\u00a0 There is a certain type of interaction between a wave and an ocean current that presents a reduction or an increase in movement, depending on the relative direction, that has to be taken into account when you need to analyze these bodies.\u00a0 The phenomenon had been discovered through experiments.\u00a0 I imagined a certain physical situation and from that, inferred that there had to be a\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0closed formula that is dependent on the routinely calculated drift coefficient. I showed that the inferred formula was mathematically precise in the underlying theoretical context, and later, Petrobras funded an experiment at IPT that corroborated the results. And that became Aranha\u2019s formula.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I have found theses, including citations outside Brazil, that focus their studies on your formula.<\/strong><br \/>\nIt became public knowledge. I published it in 1994 and it has become part of the field of oceanography, in the study of ocean currents and floating bodies.\u00a0 I\u2019m happy with that accomplishment. I think it was the most original thing I\u2019ve ever done.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why is the study of waves so interesting?\u00a0 <\/strong><br \/>\nI think it\u2019s really interesting to take, for example, an equation such as that for refraction, which explains why the ocean\u2019s waves break in parallel to the coastline, and know that the equation provides, on the one hand, Snell\u2019s Law from the 17<sup>th<\/sup> century and on the other hand, Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s equation from 20<sup>th<\/sup> century quantum mechanics.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s important to have a complete overview, a theory that is not in itself limited.\u00a0 Engineering addresses many interesting problems, but they are often so focused that they become sterile. Engineering doesn\u2019t seem to care much about the taste for knowledge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why is that? <\/strong><br \/>\nEngineering schools, especially those in Brazil, still meet specific demands, so much so that the field of research in Brazilian engineering has a broad interface with the provision of services.\u00a0 We\u2019re living in difficult times, where thought is no longer in fashion.\u00a0 Today what\u2019s interesting to folks are facts, photos and a lot of information.\u00a0 Hypotheses and conjectures have been put on the sidelines, yet as Novalis said, \u201chypotheses are nets: only he who casts will catch,\u201d a sentence that is nearly incomprehensible nowadays.\u00a0 Hypotheses and conjectures have not disappeared; they\u2019ve just fallen out of fashion and I think that one day they\u2019ll be back.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do we need to have a more scientific outlook?<\/strong><br \/>\nScience is by and large a discussion about order, but this order, in most cases, is not very clear.\u00a0 You have to look for it deep within phenomena.\u00a0 Engineering schools ignore this search.\u00a0 For them all that matters is the end result. \u00a0The Pythagorean Theorem is not taught in primary school because the student is going to be a surveyor, so he is taught a little Plato without knowing that he\u2019s learning about Plato. But the way it is taught is completely wrong; the theorem ends up being an end in itself and the student, instead of playing around with triangles, his imagination and the rigor of logic, is instead made to memorize the proof because that is what he will be graded on.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do students play a critical role in this? <\/strong><br \/>\nIt\u2019s the schools\u2019 fault. Engineering schools should be \u201cschools\u201d first.\u00a0 Scholars say there are two issues in education: one is the transmission of knowledge and the other, which everyone proclaims in poetry and prose and then turns it into something operational, is student empowerment.\u00a0 I think \u2013 and this is the point I\u2019m talking about, rather unsuccessfully, I might add \u2013 that empowerment is woven into the threads of the journey of discovery, and not the discovery itself.\u00a0 As I see it, I don\u2019t care that mass attracts mass: what I care about is knowing how, from Copernicus to Newton, we arrived at this discovery and how it became the magical solution. Copernicus was a canon and, faced with the confusing orbit of Mars seen from Earth, he ended up squeezed between two scholastic dogmas: order and geocentrism.\u00a0 Intuitively, he chose order, which is not <em>a priori <\/em>evident because it displaced the center to the Sun using a simple rationale:\u00a0 the Sun describes a circle when seen from Earth and our planet also describes a circle in relation to the Sun, therefore it is definitely a fixed orbit.\u00a0 Then came Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and that\u2019s how physics began.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Was your training different?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt wasn\u2019t different, perhaps it was more critical.\u00a0 I often hear in mechanical engineering that \u201can engineer needs to know what a hydraulic pump is.\u201d But why? Why clog up a student\u2019s mind with abacuses and calculations if, at the first shake of the head, it all slips out and he forgets everything?\u00a0 If the student is trained well, in a month, he can learn all there is to know about the topic at school.\u00a0 Every so often I feel that engineering schools \u2013 although they always say they want to change \u2013 can\u2019t seem to get out of their own way.\u00a0 I would go so far as to say that the time it takes to change something in engineering is geological: it is very slow. We live in a culture that was forged by people with needs and wants from another time. During the 1940s, engineering in Brazil was almost like a scout\u2019s survival kit because an engineer had to go into the forest, he needed to know a little about hydraulics, electricity, construction, etc.\u00a0 He needed know all of that, but that\u2019s no longer the case.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How should it be today?<\/strong><br \/>\nWe need to have organized information and be able to make intelligent connections, the synapses, with other fields.\u00a0 In schools, there are a ton of disciplines that don\u2019t talk to each other.\u00a0 It\u2019s impossible for the normal human mind to leave a class on management, go to quantum mechanics, then logistics, then linear algebra, then screw design \u2026 and everything taught is deemed necessary.\u00a0 How do you organize a thought?\u00a0\u00a0 I read a very interesting article on phenomenology written by the German philosopher Husserl. Imagine a hunk of wood. There\u2019s nothing more solid than this and yet, we can never see what\u2019s inside it: it is the continuous movement of our eyes and the meshing of the different views that forms our \u201cnotion of the hunk.\u201d\u00a0 If this is true for a hunk of wood, imagine how it is for a more abstract thought! We need to take our time with the thing, build it, from the inside out, from the side.\u00a0 The development of a culture \u2013 which is not learning, but rather, what\u2019s left after information is lost through forgetting \u2013 demands a repetition of themes in connected areas so that the look \u2013 the thought \u2013 wanders through the phenomena, that these different views are made compatible and synthesized into a concept that, when it appears, is a discovery. This dimension of allure is lost these days, when in the name of pseudo-transparency, we can only understand what is quantified.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Isn\u2019t this type of instruction a sign of our times in which everything has to be fast and we need to know a little about everything?\u00a0 <\/strong><br \/>\nAdded to this is the fact that today \u2013 in particular \u2013 computing and all the technology become obsolete in five years.\u00a0 The function of engineering schools, however, is not to become a prisoner to cutting-edge technology, because technology is already born neo-obsolete.\u00a0\u00a0 We need to learn the basic structures of thought because these are what last forever.\u00a0 The changes proposed in our schools come with the international stamp and then they\u2019re gone without our knowing why.\u00a0 Reengineering has already gone by the wayside today, or even yesterday.\u00a0 What\u2019s in fashion now is entrepreneurship, innovation and governance.\u00a0 The question is: what competence do we have to talk about entrepreneurship if we\u2019re inside the university?\u00a0 If innovation is what you want, why not go to science \u2013 it has actual innovations \u2013 and understand how this interface came to be. If during one\u2019s youth, a person has no time to admire the adventure of knowledge, to become enamored with it, if the university doesn\u2019t show him or the student doesn\u2019t want to see it, something is lost.\u00a0 You might end up earning a lot of money, but, as I constantly remind my students to no avail, \u201cthe goal in life is not to maximize profits, but to minimize tedium.\u201d School is, or should be, an entry to life, not just training for a job.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What can be done about it?<\/strong><br \/>\nWe shouldn\u2019t be ashamed of the fact that we\u2019re a recent culture.\u00a0 Brazil is a country with tremendous qualities.\u00a0 We have to have international interaction \u2013 we can\u2019t close ourselves off, isolate ourselves on an island.\u00a0 I\u2019m in favor of internationalization but just up to a certain point.\u00a0 A researcher needs to take some time to be with himself and think about things, about his obsessions, because if he doesn\u2019t do this, nothing will come of it. If all he does is collaborate on international studies of what others are doing abroad, he gets citations but never independence.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So, there needs to be a local theme? <\/strong><br \/>\nNot just local. In other countries, while some folks are playing around with internationalization, there is a solid core of people that is studying and continuing to do the basic things.\u00a0 Here there isn\u2019t: we throw things around helter-skelter, or to put it differently, towards the basket everyone is trying to make, because the risk is lower.\u00a0 If you ask me if I\u2019m against internationalization, I say \u201cno.\u201d\u00a0 But I think we need to develop a domestic culture of thinking.\u00a0 It\u2019s clear that for researchers who are not in a major research center, it\u2019s going to be much more difficult to have a work cited than if he were from MIT, for example.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t believe that a \u201cperipheral country\u201d becomes \u201cmajor\u201d because of the number of citations one has together with researchers from larger centers: it becomes \u201cmajor\u201d for the set of original contributions it can generate and whether this production is recognized as its own and not from the originator.\u00a0 We shouldn\u2019t be ashamed of the stage we\u2019re in.\u00a0 We have to fight to move forward, making mistakes and getting things right.\u00a0 One of the basic things that came out of my time at MIT \u2013 a good school with out-of-this-world marketing \u2013 was to realize that those authors that I read there were people just like me: they make mistakes, say and do stupid things, because that is human nature. Engineering schools treat errors as almost character defects.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You grew up in a large family with six children.\u00a0 Was your father a professor as well?\u00a0 <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, he was a surgeon, although he would have liked to be one and tried to do so, but he had seven children.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been fortunate; my family is happy, and we all have a great sense of humor.\u00a0 I studied at the Col\u00e9gio Santa Cruz with Father Charbonneau, who was an enthusiastic teacher with good ideas.\u00a0 There I also had a wonderful math teacher who let us prove our theorems.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you think you\u2019ve established a school of applied mathematics and oceanographic engineering here at USP? \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve established a school. And, not to put myself down, but I think that Brazil has a long way to go in this area, and that\u2019s nothing to be ashamed of. On the other hand, and this works in our favor, I think this is a construct that if truly done right and taken seriously in the broadest sense of science in Brazil, good things will come of it.\u00a0 May-be not next year, but in 30 or 50 years. We need to persevere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Studies have resulted in solutions for deep water oil extraction   ","protected":false},"author":10,"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":[161],"tags":[228],"coauthors":[97],"class_list":["post-237836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","tag-engineering"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237836","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237836"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=237836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}