Crodowaldo Pavan - Studies

Studies

Following Dreyfus' advice, in 1938 he enrolled in a course of natural history at the University of São Paulo, continuing to work in biological research under his mentor. His doctoral thesis on the subject of the blind cave fish Typhlobagrus kronci was completed in the same institution. In 1942, he accepted a position as assistant professor at the University of São Paulo, and quickly became a full professor, a position he held until his retirement in 1978.

In 1942, Pavan became involved in a pioneering research project on the genetics, taxonomy and ecology of Drosophila fruit flies, financed by the Rockefeller Foundation under the direction of the noted Russian-American biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky. This subject became Pavan's lifelong research interest and the source of his international recognition. In particular, Dr. Pavan introduced into biology the cytogenetical study of Rhynchosciara angelae, a fly which is noted for its giant chromosomes, thus facilitating the determination of the loci of genes. He and his collaborators were among the first to prove that the structure of genes and chromosomes was not fixed and could be changed by infections.

In 1966, Pavan accepted an invitation from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to establish a laboratory for further investigation on cellular genetics. In 1968, he accepted an invitation to become a tenured full professor at the University of Texas at Austin, in Austin, Texas. He returned to Brazil in 1975, and, after officially retiring from his post at the University of São Paulo, he accepted the position of full professor at the recently founded State University of Campinas, working as departmental chairman and dean of the Instituto de Biologia da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Institute of Biology) until a second retirement. He is currently an emeritus professor at both universities.

Read more about this topic:  Crodowaldo Pavan

Famous quotes containing the word studies:

    His life itself passes deeper in nature than the studies of the naturalist penetrate; himself a subject for the naturalist. The latter raises the moss and bark gently with his knife in search of insects; the former lays open logs to their core with his axe, and moss and bark fly far and wide. He gets his living by barking trees. Such a man has some right to fish, and I love to see nature carried out in him.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    What an admirable training is science for the more active warfare of life! Indeed, the unchallenged bravery which these studies imply, is far more impressive than the trumpeted valor of the warrior.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    ...Women’s Studies can amount simply to compensatory history; too often they fail to challenge the intellectual and political structures that must be challenged if women as a group are ever to come into collective, nonexclusionary freedom.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)