Last Wednesday, I was very honoured and happy for receiving the Miriani Pastoriza prize of the Brazilian Astronomical Society — our Sociedade Astronômica Brasileira (SAB).

Prof. Pastoriza played a key role in brazilian astronomy. She joined the physics department at UFRGS in 1978 and actually introduced extragalactic astronomy in the south of Brasil. She was one of the few people working on this subject in the country at that time. She has been very active in research in the last forty years and advised a generation of brilliant astronomers including Thaisa Storchi Bergmann, Eduardo Bica and Kepler Oliveira.

I am her scientific grandchild since she was the advisor of my phd advisor, Prof. Storchi Bergmann. I am very honoured for following her footsteps.