Hello everyone!

My name is Fabio Cafardo and I just started my PhD in Astrophysics at IAG-USP under the supervision of Prof. Rodrigo Nemmen. I’m really happy and motivated by this new challenge in my life.

Astronomy has always been one of my passions. But, before getting my Astrophysics degree, I worked 10 years as a Business Administrator. This experience proved to me that it is very important to work with something which you really like. That’s what I am doing now!

The topic of my research project is the high-energy emission of the supermassive black hole in the center of Our Galaxy, called Sagittarius A*. It is a fascinating topic and I really hope to provide new insights into the high energy processes occurring there.

Welcome aboard, Fabio! We are happy you switched gears and are working with us.

This semester, we are welcoming a new member to the group: Ivan Almeida. Ivan just graduated with stellar grades at Physics USP and will begin his work as a grad student in the group. Below are a few words from him:

Hi all, my name is Ivan Carlos de Almeida, and I’m beginning my masters degree at IAG-USP under the supervision of professor Rodrigo Nemmen. I’m a physicist recently graduated at IF-USP.

While I were an undergrad student I’ve entered the “Black Hole group” as a student of “Iniciação Científica”. This was my first effective contact with astrophysics and it was really interesting!

Since childhood I’m curious about the night sky, stars and all the cosmos. Some years later I have developed interest in General Relativity. So Black Hole physics attracted me greatly.

In the current project I’ll do HD and MHD simulations of accretion around black holes. I’ll investigate the existence of winds and if these winds provide efficient feedback inside the galaxy.

Ivan was quite successful during his undergraduate research project: we are anticipating 2 papers resulting from his work. He got the prestigious FAPESP scholarship that will fund his graduate studies. A very small fraction of students obtain this scholarship.

Welcome aboard, Ivan!

Let’s give a warm welcome to Henrique Gubolin, my new graduate student. Let’s hear from Henrique himself:

Hi! I’m Henrique Gubolin Torres, and I’m starting my masters degree under the supervision of Rodrigo Nemmen; I just graduated in physics at IF-USP and I already worked with galaxy clusters and simulations before.

In this new project, I’ll be doing black hole simulations with the help of some well known magnetohydrodynamic codes, of course. We will simulate gas around a non-spinning black hole (Schwarzschild) using a semi-Newtonian approach and Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD). I’m looking forward to this project and to my new graduate student life, so… here we go!