Rate My Professor Otávio Thiemann

Otávio Henrique Thiemann is an Associate Professor at the Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC) of the Universidade de São Paulo. He holds a degree in Agricultural Engineering from the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (1988), a master’s degree in Biological Sciences (Biophysics) from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) (1991), and a doctorate in Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles (1998). His research focuses on the molecular and structural biology of parasites, including kinetoplastid protozoa such as Leishmania and Trypanosoma, as well as free-living amoebae and their associated giant viruses. Key areas include protein translation mechanisms, selenocysteine synthesis and incorporation, molecular cloning, and structural virology, with particular emphasis on virion structures and related biophysical processes.

Thiemann has held several leadership positions at IFSC-USP, including president of the Graduate Committee and coordinator of the Graduate Course in Physics (2013–2016), vice-head of the Department of Physics and Interdisciplinary Science (2020–2022), and coordinator of the Bachelor’s Degree in Physical and Biomolecular Sciences (2006–2012). He proposed and helped establish this interdisciplinary undergraduate program and has served on the São Carlos Campus Management Board and the IFSC Library Council. He is a member of the Brazilian Society of Protozoology (SBPz), where he served on the board from 2012 to 2016, as well as the Brazilian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SBBq) and the International Society for Protistology (ISOP). Thiemann leads the protein crystallography group at IFSC and has contributed to the advancement of structural biology techniques in Latin America through his work on parasite and virus structures.