Four of the 37 thesis of PhD laureate in the 2010 edition of the Marechal-do-ar Casimiro Montenegro Filho award, conferred by the Strategic Affairs Secretariat of the Presidency (SAE), were based on researches conducted on the premises of the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), in Campinas. The LNLS houses the only  source of Synchrotron Radiation  in  Latin America and it is used by the scientific and technological community for  research in the fields of nanoscience, advanced materials, drugs, alternative energy, and others.

The awards, presented  on  December 28^th , at USP, have the purpose of  stimulating  the production of studies and researches directed at  issues that contribute to scientific and technological development strategy, and to the strenghtening of National Defense and  the strategic sectors of aerospace, information technology and communication, nuclear energy and biotechnology. The  analyzed  thesis  were defended between January 1st and October 29th, 2010.

Maureen Joel Lagos Paredes, of Unicamp, winning with the thesis about “Structural effects in the quantum conductance and mechanical deformation of metallic nanowires”, is a student and scholar of the LNLS. His thesis, developed at the Electronic Microscopy Laboratory (LME) of LNLS, under Professor Daniel Ugarte, analyzed the structural and electric properties of metallic nanowires at different temperatures. “I had the collaboration of the Vacuum Group and of the machine shop, which was indispensable for the researches”, he explains.

Daniela Barreto Barbosa Trivella, directed by Igor Polikarpov, of USP in São Carlos, analysed the “Molecular and structural basis of ligand recognition by the human protein transtiterretina”; and Cristina Rodrigues Guzzo Carvalho, guided by Shaker Chuck Farah, also from USP, was awarded  for the “Study of structural and functional proteins Pilze Yaeq the phytopathogen Xanthomonas axonopodis pv citri”. Both researches were performed at  the beamlines for  Crystallography of Macromolecules (MX1 and MX2), used to study the tridimensional structure of biological macromolecules in  the proteins. “Most of the crystal structures that I decided to study during my doctorate were collected at these beamlines”, says Daniela.

Rodrigo Sávio Pessoa, of Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA), oriented by Homero Santiago Maciel and Gilberto Petraconi Filho was laureated for the doctorate “Studies of fluorinated plasmas used in the etching of silicon using a global model simulation and experimental diagnostics”. Pessoa, whom used the Microfabrication Laboratory, explains that the LNLS was central to performing the measures for  the researches linked to the doctoral thesis. “The institution has a room to perform the cleaning and lithography of semiconductor materials, which allowed me to perform the steps of masking of the ‘wafers’ of silicon. After this stage it was possible to quantify and qualify the reactor corrosion developed in the  work “, he says.

The LNLS is an open institution, multidisciplinary and multi-user connected to the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) and operated by the Brazilian Association for Synchrotron Light Technology (ABTLuS) through a management contract with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT).