Vanderlei Salvador Bagnato received his PhD from MIT (1987). He also double majored in Material Science Engineering (Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brasil, 1981) and Physics (Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil, 1981). He received the titles of  “Livre – Docente” at the University of São Paulo (1989) and Full Professor at the University of São Paulo (1993). He also recently joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University. His activities are based on laser cooling, the trapping of neutral atoms, and the applications of optics and lasers in health science. He has published over 800  papers in international journals, with more than 28,000 citations. During his academic life, he has supervised more than 130 graduate students. He is a member of the following academies: National Academy of Sciences (NAS, USA), National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Pontifical Academy of Sciences (Vaticano), TWAS, Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), and Latin American Academy of Science (ACAL).