Editorial

Alberto Consolaro

Many Brazilians dream of studying abroad. Perhaps to build a career in another country or just to make a true contribution for Brazil in the field of science and technology. What if this contribution positively affects the improvement of a product that benefits hundreds of patients? In this case, we would be talking about a young prodigy named Luiz Augusto Meirelles who gave us this amazing interview. It was in 2007 that we had the grateful surprise to meet Luiz. We organized a group of people that went to Gothenburg, Sweden, to participate of the first Brazilian Day (Dental Press Magazine, Periodontics Implantology, v. 1, n. 3, p. 110-111, jul./aug./sep. 2007). We had many lectures given by professors from Sweden and Brazil, in a scientific exchange very beneficial to our team. On the following day, we watched the interviewee’s thesis defense. Actually we saw a young man to be truly massacred with objective questions, sometimes aggressive, from his accuser (Professor Lyndon Cooper, USA), regarding his works in surfaces of implants, especially in nanotopography. However, for our joy, he not only did very well, but also was applauded by his compatriots and by the Swedes present at the end of the works. Today we have a friend who exercises the teaching and researching at the University of Rochester, in the U.S., and that at 37 years of age is already quoted by the most renowned researchers, as one of the world’s leading authorities in the field of surfaces of osseointegrated implants. Luiz Meirelles graduated in Dentistry in 1998 at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and worked in different research projects in the area of osseointegration during scientific initiation. In 2001 he started the master’s degree at the Faculty of Piracicaba (Unicamp), analyzing the distribution of stress on implants through a photoelastic analysis. He concluded the program in March of 2003 and initiated the doctorate at the University of Gothenburg in the same year. His doctorate program was focused in modifications on the surface of dental implants, characterizing the nanostructures with an innovator model. He defended his PhD thesis in 2007, being one of the pioneer researchers on the evaluation of bone response related to nanotopography. Today, he works at the University of Rochester as Assistant Professor of the Eastman Institute for Oral Health and the Faculty of Bioengineering. He is the head of a laboratory of research in biomaterials and works with patients in rehab. Luiz Meirelles is married and father of twin girls. Luis Rogério Duarte

Sunday, December 29, 2024 16:10