Professor Vânia Elisabete Schneider and the alchemy of turning garbage into science

Abstract

This article pays homage to a teacher, friend, and researcher, or is it a researcher, friend, and teacher? These doubts are evident throughout the article, as the reader will see how difficult it is to separate these three dimensions. Our “alchemist” has as one of her characteristics to share with the academics and colleagues of the various courses in which she teaches all her discoveries, enthusiasm, and research skills in an intense and loving way. Despite her extensive and impressive academic and professional curriculum, Professorassor Vania stands out for her academic generosity and for “embracing” people by placing them as equals. Also noteworthy are her field classes, always full of motivation, joy, and seriousness, her tireless work for equipping the research and/or teaching laboratories in which she operates, and her scientific production in which she wins many projects from development agencies, writes and publishes many articles and has organized many important scientific events. Impressive as the sea, Vania is the educator who trains in any space, she is the passionate biologist who insists on wanting to save the planet and imposes on us a love and a responsibility for environmental quality is due.