The Santos Dumont Institute (ISD) held a ceremony on Friday afternoon (5) to celebrate its 10 years of qualification as a Social Organization linked to the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Education. The event brought together authorities, advisors, employees, students and new and old collaborators, and was also attended by the emeritus researcher and creator of the ISD, Miguel Nicolelis.
The meeting followed the Aula Magna given by Nicolelis the afternoon of the previous day (4). Both events are part of a series of activities that will be developed throughout the year, in allusion to the 10 years.
“It will, in fact, be a whole year of actions, events, synapses, births, and connections. And it is for this capacity to connect, to give life to everything that ISD does, that I am grateful and celebrate,” declared ISD’s general director, Reginaldo Freitas Júnior. For him, the 10-year milestone can be considered a utopia built by the “lives that underpin” the Institute.
A daily audience of more than 200 people filled the auditorium and adjoining space of the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience (IIN-ELS), one of the two ISD units, in MacaÍba.
On Thursday, senior employees were honored and received plaques commemorating the “commitment and excellence” of their work.
On Friday, a series of tributes were held through the cancellation of commemorative stamps for the 10th anniversary, in a ceremony conducted by the Post Office. The art was created by visual artist Marcos Andruchak to celebrate the participation of the Institute's users and collaborators, who were the protagonists of the moment.
The seal was awarded to representatives of communities served by ISD, users, employees, students, former students, partner institutions and public authorities.
Another honoree of the afternoon was the emeritus researcher and founder of the Institute, Miguel Nicolelis. The neuroscientist was moved when he spoke about the institution's history of achievements since its inception, twenty years ago, when he first arrived in the municipality of Macaíba.
“What I saw in that landscape was the future of a country that understood that science, education and the health of its citizens must be the zero priority of any project for the country, for civility and for civilization,” he said.
Nicolelis also considered that, in the coming years, the ISD will be fundamental in the development of the so-called “brain industry” in Brazil. “An industry designed to manipulate new technologies, combine new processes from multiple areas of knowledge to create a new way of acting on neurological and psychiatric diseases, which affect half of humanity,” he explained.
The ceremony was also attended by the CEO of Neoenergia Cosern, Fabiana Lopes. The company made the largest donation of a photovoltaic plant in Rio Grande do Norte to ISD, through the Energy Efficiency Program, regulated by the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel).
The solar plant, which has entered the final assembly phase on the roof of IIN-ELS, will have around 200 kWp, with an estimated annual generation of 328.16 GWh, which represents supplying around 50% of the institution's consumption, in addition to reducing the annual cost of the energy bill by approximately R$ 152 thousand.
The ceremony ended with the unveiling of a plaque celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Santos Dumont Institute's qualification as a Social Organization. The event was attended by ISD's CEO, Reginaldo Freitas Júnior; ISD's emeritus researcher, Miguel Nicolelis; the chairman of the ISD's Board of Directors, Theodoro Paraschiva; and the CEO of the Foundation for the Support and Promotion of Science, Technology and Innovation (Fapern), Gilson Sampaio de Souza, representing Governor Fátima Bezerra.
