Congratulations to the newest PhD of our department, Dr. Gustavo Rocha da Silva! This week, Dr. Rocha da Silva successfully defended his thesis on MHD simulations of relativistic jets from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and demonstrated the importance of relativistic MHD in understanding the physics of GRB afterglows and the amplification of magnetic fields in the environment of such objects.

I was part of his PhD thesis committee — my first time in such a committee — and I enjoyed it very much.