The Science of Haroldo Silva
By Martin Haro

Alumnus and McNair Scholar Haroldo Silva ’05 will spend much of his summer in an FIU laboratory continuing to unlock the mysteries of the cardiovascular system. At the end of July, he will take his research to a new level when he moves to California to begin the Ph.D. program at the University of California at Berkeley in the fall.

“I’m actually looking forward to it,” Silva, 22, said. “It’ll be a new experience for me.”

His journey started before he moved to the United States from his native Brazil with his family in 1999. He says he always knew what he wanted to do and even chose the biological sciences program – the equivalent to honors classes here – while in high school.

At FIU, he declared math as his major but soon started exploring biomedical engineering, which he eventually chose for his undergraduate studies.

“My interest in bioengineering was shaped over the years,” he explained. “I was planning on becoming a medical doctor. When I moved here, I was advised to focus more on the physical sciences and mathematics.”

A beautiful mind, a bright future

Silva excelled at FIU. He was invited to join several student societies, such as the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and found time for community service, working for Habitat for Humanity, among other organizations.

In Fall 2005, at the College of Engineering’s graduation ceremony, FIU President Modesto A. Maidique recognized Silva as the only student to graduate that semester with a perfect 4.0 Grade Point Average.

He earned the David Maurer Excellence in Biology Award and was recently accepted into the joint Ph.D. program in bioengineering at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley. He will attend the latter on the highly competitive Chancellor’s Fellowship for Graduate Study. His extensive research did not require that he complete a master’s degree before pursuing a Ph.D.

He joined FIU’s Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program as a senior in Spring 2005. The federally funded program helps prepare under-represented minorities for advanced graduate education in science, technology or mathematics. That summer, the McNair Program supported his ongoing research in Assistant Professor Nikolaos Tsoukias’ lab in the department of biomedical engineering.

The project has him applying mathematical modeling and computational methods to analyze data and describe the behavior of blood vessels. The goal is to understand in detail how blood vessels work in order to develop or improve treatments for cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension. He will continue working in Tsoukias’ lab until he leaves for California.

‘That’s the beauty of it’

In April, Silva presented a poster titled “A Mathematical Modeling of Plasma Membrane Electrophysiology and Calcium Dynamics in Rat Mesenteric Endothelial Cells” (the fruit of more than a year of work) at the 2006 Experimental Biology Conference in San Francisco.

He is also currently working on publishing a paper on his research in the prestigious American Journal of Physiology.

“To see my work appreciated, it makes me feel like it is all worth it…like I’m contributing answers to questions and raising new ones, which is kind of the point of ‘discovering’ something. That’s the beauty of it.”

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