SCAT - News

The second SCAT grantee to complete his mobility

August 2007

Leonardo Gordillo spent nine
months in Paris, at UPMC.

Santiago— Peruvian student Leonardo Gordillo has returned to Chile, were he is a MSc student, after his mobility to Paris. He is the second SCAT grantee to complete his period of research abroad; the first was Helmut Wahanik who visited Bristol until February 2007.

Leonardo is originally from Peru, but he moved to Chile after his secondary education, obtaining a place to study Astronomy at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He was only 17 years old when he left his country to live alone and abroad.

During his studies in astronomy, Leonardo became more and more interested in fluid dynamics and in numerical simulation. He was able to collaborate with SCAT partner at University of Chile, Dr Sergio Rica, who co-supervised his thesis. Later, Leonardo joined University of Chile as a MSc student, and then applied for his SCAT mobility grant.

During his mobility, Leonardo worked in the research group of Prof. Stéphane Zaleski, in collaboration too with Dr Christophe Josserand, at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie.

Personal statement

Here is the personal point of view of Leonardo Gordillo, on his SCAT grant:

"The nine months I spent in Paris were very useful not only for my career but also for my life. As days passed, homesickness passed and research became my lifestyle.

During the first months, I was able to attend some courses that were given by well-known researchers or even pioneers in the area. This experience was great for me. I could learn a lot of new stuff about the actual research topics in fluid dynamics.

The second stage of my fellowship consisted in the research itself. We studied the formation of 2-D liquid drops. I used to spend hours working in front of the computers. When I had an idea, I couldn't stop until checking its whole usefulness. Every week we shared our results with other students and with other researchers arriving from all over the world.

When I had to return to Santiago, we had already gotten a lot of new results that we may publish this year. I am especially thankful to both my supervisors at the LMM, Stéphane Zaleski and Christophe Josserand who supported me and who made me work more than ever. I also thank Mr Boris Drappier, the SCAT project manager, for his help whenever I needed it."