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Writing a PhD thesis is a laborious task. First, because there is a high expectation from everyone involved in the work, from the PhD candidate to the thesis director, and it is even difficult to know when it is time to stop.

The beginning of the year 2018 was busy for me: I got married, moved abroad, and started my thesis, everything in less than four months. Such an intense change was difficult at the beginning, but, since I was very motivated, my adaptation was more or less quick and smooth.

Sir Isaac Newton, the father of classic mechanics, once said: “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants”. This sentence carries the base of any good research, that consists of building upon the work of other people that already did something in the field, in a constant improvement process.

O mundo passa por mudanças mais intensas do que esperávamos ou desejávamos, e com ele todo o conjunto do sistema educacional. Essa não é uma realidade que afeta apenas uma cidade ou país, mas todo o conjunto de pessoas que querem ou precisam aprender o que quer que seja.

Last week I had the great opportunity to attend a short course called “Predictive Multiscale Materials Design”. The course was taught by Prof. Markus J Buehler, a Professor of Engineering and department head of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT.