Prof. Atila P Silva Freire holds degrees in mechanical engineering (BSc, IME,1981), nuclear engineering (MSc, Coppe/UFRJ, 1983) celestial mechanics (MSc, Brazilian National Observatory, 1984) and aeronautics (PhD, Cambridge, 1987). He has since taught and conducted research at Coppe/UFRJ, where he led the creation of four laboratories on turbulence control, artificial lift techniques, primary multi-phase flow separation and well technology. Prof. Silva Freire is a Research Fellow of CNPq and Faperj and a member of ABCM (Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering), having served as the editor-in-chief of its journal from 1990 to 2005.