Cristina Kurachi

Professor, University of São Paulo, Brazil
Country of Birth: Brazil

Educational Background: DDS, School of Dentistry, University of São Paulo, Brazil, PhD Engineering and Materials Science, São Carlos Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, Brazil 

The idea of "playing" in the lab to discover and learn new things always attracted my attention. The possibility of understanding why and how things occur is great. At the end, to work in science is not definitely just to play in the lab, a lot of hard work is needed, but indeed worthwhile!

As a university professor, I have three main activities: education, research, and science dissemination. I teach courses for the undergraduate and graduate students, and at the present I have 10 graduate students working mainly with topics in Photodiagnostics and Photodynamic Therapy. In my Biophotonics Laboratory, we work with the interaction of light and biological systems at different levels to develop and test photonic techniques applied to disease diagnostics and treatment; we also design and test optical instrumentation. I also give training courses for health professionals on photonic techniques, participate on science expositions taking demonstrations to general public, elementary and high schools, and teach workshops and courses for graduate students in physics and health sciences.

Try to keep all in balance: hard work and social life. Family, friends, physical activities, hobbies... all important! You must always have commitment and perseverance.