Course of Molecular Sciences (Curso de Ciências Moleculares)

There are already 15 (myself included) students abroad performing graduate (Ph.D.) and post-graduate studies worldwide! Here are them: (the percentage indicated below is: for each class.)

With this, we have a total of 16 students abroad (which stands for 19% of the TOTAL of the CECM students (86)!!!) Now, if we remember that, from this 86 students, only 49 are already graduated, then this percentage is of 33%!!! This means that 33% of the graduated students are abroad!!!

The Course of Molecular Sciences (CCM - Curso de Ciências Moleculares) was conceived to be an interdisciplinary course, meaning that the people who got their B.Sc. in CCM would be able to perform interdisciplinary research.

In order to achieve the desired amount of interdisciplinarity, the course is divided into two parts: (i) Basic Cycle and (ii) Advanced Cycle.

1.

Basic Cycle: During a period of two years, the student is required to take previously selected courses in these five areas: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Computer Science (essentially applied to all four above). The preselected courses are intended to give the student a certain ``basics'' in each field mentioned above, thus one can continue afterwards in an ``advanced'' way. For example:

• Mathematics: Calculus, Vols. 1, 2, Apostol; Introduction to Calculus and Analysis, Vols. 1, 2, Courant and John; Curso de Análise, Vols. 1, 2 - IMPA, Elon L. Lima; Complex Analysis, S. Lang; Linear Algebra, Hoffman-Kunze, Complex Variables and its Applications, Churchill; and some special topics (like Partial Differential Equations) were selected for seminars;

• Physics: The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vols. 1, 2, 3, Leighton, Sands, Feynman; Curso de Física de Berkeley, Vols. 1, 2, 3, 4 - Mechanics, Electromagnetism, Waves and Oscillations, Quantum Mechanics, Kittel, Knight, Ruderman, Purcell, Crawford, Wichman; Quantum Physics, Gasiorowicz; Curso de Física Básica, Vols. 1, 2, H. M. Nussenzveig; Space-time Physics; Taylor, Wheeler;

• Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry, P. W. Atkins; Physical Chemistry, P. W. Atkins; thermodynamics (P. W. Atkins), inorganic chemistry (P. W. Atkins), electro-chemistry (P. W. Atkins), quantum chemistry (P. W. Atkins) and selected topics for seminars given by the students;

• Biology: Biochemistry, Voet; Principles of Biochemistry, Lehninger; Biochemistry, Stryer; Genes V, Lewin; Molecular Biology of the Gene, Watson et. al., The Molecular Biology of the Cell, Watson et. al., Principles of Neuro Science and Behaviour, Candell; and

• Computer Science: Programming languages, including Fortran 77, basic, Pascal, Modula 2 and 3, HTML programming, shell-scripts (Linux), Gnu-Make (Linux), and some more Linux (*nix) related languages; algorithms & data structures (Algorithms and Data Structures, Nicklaus Wirth), numerical analysis/calculus (several books, e. g.: Numerical Recipes in Fortran 77, Press, et. al.) and we had a ``final'' course on applications of computation to astronomy (astrophysics), quantum mechanics, biology, ``general physics'', and related topics...

2.

Advanced Cycle: Total curricular freedom! The Advanced Cycle is expected to last from 1.5 to 4 years, depending on the amount of subjects selected by the student. Experience has shown that it does not last much more than two years (what gives a total of 4 years for the complete course). To enter the Advanced Cycle the student is required to have an advisor that will help with the selection of advanced subjects and with one's ``Scientific Initiation'' (scientific initiation is a kind of ``introduction to the world of research'' work that is performed with the chosen advisor - called Initiation to Research in the syllabus. The student will be having guided studies in the area chosen. This kind of studies provide the student with elements that accelerates his maturity in terms of research).

My personal experience with CCM lead me to choose mathematics/physics as the areas of my advanced cycle, and in order to do so, I chose an advisor: Prof. M. C. B. Abdalla. Profs. H. Fleming, A. F. R. T. Piza and J. L. deLyra were also in close contact with me during my ``Scientific Initiation''. An advanced curriculum which had subjects in the Mathematics and Statistics Institute of the University of São Paulo (IME-USP) and in the Physics Institute of the University of São Paulo (IF-USP), was prepared by me and supervised by my advisor (although some extra courses were taken in the Chemistry (IQ-USP) and Biology (IB and ICB-USP) Institutes of the same University).

Under the guidance of prof. M.C.B. Abdalla I have studied advanced Quantum Mechanics (Sakurai), Quantum Field Theory (P. Ramond and B. Hatfield), Supersymmetry and Supergravity (Wess & Bagger) and I also published a ``Book - Lecture Notes'': Quantum Field Theory. In addition, I also took advanced courses (with some Ph.D. fellows) in General Relativity (Weinberg and K. Thorne & C. Misner & J.A. Wheeler) and Geometrical Methods of Mathematical Physics (Bishop & Goldberg, Schwinger and Schultz). Now, I am trying to finish a ``Book - Lecture Notes'' on Supersymmetry and Strings (which shall be ready by the end of this term...).

CCM Address: