Missing our great physicist Sérgio Mascarenhas, defender of science

The passing of the scientist, physicist and chemist was mourned by all those who believe in scientific development, democratization of education and science as a way to build a fairer society in Brazil, with more health and access to all.

Professor at the Institute of Physics of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, and honorary president of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC), Sérgio Mascarenhas has taught, researched, developed technologies and received degrees in dozens of universities and research centers, such as the Bell Labs and RCA laboratories, Princeton and Harvard Universities, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), amongst other institutions in England, Germany, Mexico and Japan.

In his brilliant professional career, he chose not to accept the numerous invitations received to establish himself in large research centers abroad to embrace his commitment to science and education in his country. At the age of 86, he founded brain4care in Brazil, a legacy for all.

With his singular sense of entrepreneurship and intelligence, he has always been embedded with innovation. He argued that it was necessary to reduce the distance between the “Ivory Tower”, as he called the centers of scientific knowledge, and society. One of the most recent examples was when he questioned and scientifically proved that the skull is expandable. With that, he proved wrong a dogma in Medicine, one of the pillars of the 1783 Monroe Kellie Doctrine, and created a technology that opened countless opportunities for science improvement.

To bring to society the benefits of his discovery, in 2014, at the age of 86, he created a startup, today known as brain4care, a healthtech recognized for making accessible a new vital sign, with the potential to impact a billion lives, according to the Singularity University.

Professor Sérgio Mascarenhas, who kept working until the age of 93, making discoveries and innovating until his last few days, left us a legacy, in addition to the numerous scientific projects that impacted lives of people in various parts of the world, and the certainty of how fundamental it is for a country to value education and science. His mission of using knowledge for the benefit of humanity is being carried out by those who share with him this very same mission, either through the companies he created, through research, or through this Symposium. The legacy left by the Professor, as he was affectionately called, is immeasurable, from a human and scientific point of view. Wherever he is, he will be covered in our “abreijos”.

brain4care

Read the original tribute here