issue n\u00ba 178<\/em><\/a>). The collaboration is part of the Researchers at Risk Initiative, launched by FAPESP in March to help teaching and research institutions in the state of S\u00e3o Paulo welcome scientists from conflict zones, such as Ukraine, Syria, and Haiti.<\/p>\nThe journey from Kharkiv to S\u00e3o Carlos was not without its hurdles. Abyzov first attempted to escape Ukraine a few days after the Russian invasion began. \u201cNormal rail services stopped working and it was practically impossible to get a seat on the evacuation trains,\u201d says the scientist. His only choice was to try to leave the country by car with some friends. It took four days to travel from Kharkiv to the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, near Poland\u2014a journey that normally takes about a day.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife and I were able to cross the border at dawn on March 6, with the help of some volunteers,\u201d says the Ukrainian physicist. \u201cFrom there we traveled to Germany, and a few days later to Bergen, Norway, where we were granted refugee visas.\u201d Even from a distance, Abyzov continued to work on his research. \u201cI\u2019m a theoretical physicist and my work involves analyzing experimental results,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n
The opportunity to come to Brazil arose after he spoke to Zanotto, with whom he has collaborated for many years. \u201cHe told me about the FAPESP initiative, so we wrote a proposal and submitted it.\u201d Within a matter of days, the proposal was approved. In S\u00e3o Carlos, Abyzov will run simulations on relaxation\u2014spontaneous and partial rearrangement of molecules\u2014during nucleation and crystal growth in supercooled glass-forming liquids.<\/p>\n
He hopes his research will shed light on the complex crystallization process and contribute to the development of glass-ceramics, produced through the controlled crystallization of vitreous materials, which in the future could be used in orthopedic and dental prostheses, ballistic protection for automobiles and airplanes, and as a substitute for marble and granite. \u201cI like working here,\u201d says Abyzov. \u201cIn Norway, I’m just a refugee, but in Brazil I’m a researcher, and that makes a lot of difference in terms of self-esteem.\u201d<\/p>\n
He will conduct his study in partnership with Vladimir Mikhailovich Fokin of the Vavilov State Optical Institute in St Petersburg, a physicist from Russia with whom he has been collaborating for some years. \u201cOfficially, all Ukrainian scientists cut off professional ties with Russian colleagues, but personal contacts were maintained,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Fokin is also in Brazil. He arrived in the country in August to spend a year as a visiting professor at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) in Salvador. \u201cWhen I heard that Abyzov was here, I came to S\u00e3o Carlos to work with him,\u201d says Fokin, who will spend a month at LaMaV, with which he has maintained research links for more than two decades. \u201cRussia and Ukraine are two major powers in glass research,\u201d adds Zanotto, who since 2013 has been head of the Center for Research, Education, and Innovation in Vitreous Materials (CeRTEV), one of the Research, Innovation, and Dissemination Centers (RIDC) funded by FAPESP. \u201cFor anyone researching nucleation and crystallization in glasses and their physical and chemical properties, close contact with scientists from these countries is essential.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abyzov is expected to stay in Brazil for just three months. \u201cI’m in the country as a tourist and I can’t stay any longer than that,\u201d he explains. Norway only allows him to leave the country for six months. If this period were to be exceeded, he would lose his refugee status. \u201cThe only way for me to extend my stay in Brazil would be to get a humanitarian visa, which can take a long time. If I can\u2019t do that, I\u2019ll go back to Bergen and work with Zanotto and Fokin from afar.\u201d<\/p>\n
What remains even more uncertain is any potential return to Ukraine in the future. \u201cKharkiv is still being bombed and we don’t know what\u2019s going to happen in the next two or three months, so it doesn’t make sense to plan any further ahead than that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Physicist Alexander Abyzov escaped the war in Ukraine and is now a visiting researcher in Brazil","protected":false},"author":346,"featured_media":452504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":[228],"coauthors":[662],"class_list":["post-452479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers","tag-engineering"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452479","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\/346"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452479"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463706,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452479\/revisions\/463706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452479"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=452479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}