About

Originally hailing from Porto Alegre, Brazil, Marcio has pursued both a rigorous technical education and engaging leadership activities since following his parents (both medical scientists) to the United States in 1996. At his high school in San Diego, Marcio was twice president of the science olympiad club, a 4 year varsity swimmer, and graduated with the #1 GPA out of 580 seniors. He also found a bit of time to develop his surfing skills, mostly at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, and to appreciate the fine cuisine of local hole-in-the-wall Mexican food shops. At UC Berkeley, he was both a Regent's Scholar and President of his 42-man fraternity, where his undergraduate research on a needle-free drug delivery device led to a patent, two grants and four journal publications. In his senior year, he helped lead his intramural soccer team to a premier league championship, which made his family back in Brazil almost as proud as his degree. Marcio proceeded from his undegrad studies directly to the bioengineering doctoral program at MIT, where his research has focused on microfluidic devices that can lead to faster, cheaper and more effective medical diagnostics, with 3 publications so far. He has also maintained an active interest in MIT's remarkable energy and entrepreneurship communities. In 2009, Marcio served as Managing Director of the MIT Clean Energy Prize, a national business plan competition with over $500,000 in prizes, where he developed a national outreach campaign that led to tripling of competition entries. He is especially interested in the future of advanced biofuels in his home country of Brazil.

Education

MIT

Ph.D. , Bioengineering

Class of 2010

Awards & Publications