For students aspiring to study abroad, the most memorable day is when they receive the offer letter from the university they applied to.
Their happiness is doubled if the study is fully funded.
That memorable day was for me, November 15, 2009, when I received a mail from the Third World Academy of Science (TWAS) offering me a place for PhD at the Institute for Theoretical Physics (IFT-UNESP), Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Brazil is a promising country in research and technology. The mixed culture encourages us to mingle with the local people.
Brazilians are friendly and cool-headed. One can manage quite well there by knowing some commonly used words in Portuguese. However, it is advisable to join a basic course in Portuguese, as many of the lectures in the university will be delivered in Portuguese.
The Institute for Theoretical Physics (IFT), a unit of UNESP, supports research activities in various areas of theoretical physics — mathematical physics, field theory, gravitation and cosmology, nuclear physics, atomic physics, phenomenology of elementary particles, statistical mechanics and nonlinear dynamics.
The course structure at IFT rebuilds and widens our conceptual foundation.
Lively campus
The campus life is enthralling with so much freedom. We have access to every facility available. The lectures delivered by the experts in different fields are a class apart. We would have frequent seminar sessions with our group members comprising undergraduates, post-graduates, doctoral and post-doctoral scholars.
Every discussion we had would drag us towards practical realities and the methods to improve the existing problems in our research field.
IFT is a campus of international excellence. The quality of education there is on par with developed countries.
Besides purely scientific activity, IFT conducts various intensive training programmes for young researchers and professionals such as summer and winter programmes and several outreach programmes by which you can get to work with research communities from all over the world. This expands our research network.
Brazilians are vigorous football players. Just watching them play fills us with enthusiasm. The world famous Rio Carnival is the biggest and the most interesting artistic events on the globe.
Every year nearly 5,00,000 foreigners attend this carnival. Apart from this, there are major tourist spots like Fernando de Noronha, Historic Center of Olinda, Salvador Beaches, Pantanal, Amazon River, Iguazu Falls and Christ the Redeemer. Now, Brazil is gleaming with pride to be the centre of the world with football world cup later this year and the Olympic Games in 2016 .
The writer did his PhD in physics in the area of Population Dynamics at The Institute for Theoretical Physics (IFT-UNESP), Sao Paulo, Brazil.
E-mail: natrajcnld@gmail.com
