Students, faculty convene at fifth annual Brazil Conference at Harvard and MIT

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Students meet with Brazil Vice President Hamilton Mourão (center, in black vest) at conference.

April 24, 2019 – Hundreds of attendees gathered at the recent Brazil Conference at Harvard and MIT to discuss challenges and opportunities for the South American nation in areas including business, politics, and technology.

Among those in attendance at the three-day event, held in early April, were students and faculty from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who came to share concerns about the future of medicine, science, and public health in Brazil.

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Fernando Bruno (left) and Hamilton Mourão

A number of political figures attended the conference, including the new vice president of Brazil, Hamilton Mourão, in his first official visit to the United States. In one of the conference sessions, Mourão met with a group of about 20 Harvard and MIT students, including Fernando Bruno, MPH ’20, president of the Brazilian Student Association at Harvard Chan (BRASACH) and a co-organizer of the conference. Topics discussed at the group session included the importance of improving management of the Brazilian health care system, as well as eradicating some persistent diseases, perhaps by ensuring clean water and adequate sewage systems in urban areas.

Noting that Brazil remains politically polarized in the wake of recent elections, Bruno was encouraged by the fact that the vice president met with a group of students for a wide-ranging discussion. and that the conference provided an opportunity for leaders with sometimes opposing views to gather for civil dialogue. “Communication is key when trying to heal and bring together a divided country,” he said.

Other Harvard Chan attendees at the conference included Marcia Castro, chair of the Department of Global Health and Population and BRASACH faculty adviser; Eric Creighton, graduate program coordinator in the Department of Biostatistics; Clariana Ramos de Oliveira, research fellow in the Department of Global Health and Population; and Mariana Guimarães, a master’s candidate at both Harvard Chan School and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and BRASACH’s vice-president for finance and strategy.

Karen Feldscher

– photos: Romério Cunha