24/02/2023

Jennifer Sorio's thesis evaluates the impact of the Covid vaccine.

Coming from Costa Rica focused on becoming a student at IMPA, Jennifer de Los Angeles Loría Sorio, 31 years old, presents this Monday (27), at 12 pm, the doctoral thesis "Epidemiological Models: Extensions, Applications and Calibration". The defense will be broadcast on YouTube and can be followed at this link .

Under the guidance of researcher Jorge Passamani Zubelli (Khalifa University/IMPA) and co-guidance of Vinicius Albani (UFSC), the Costa Rican researcher explains that she was part of a team dedicated to developing a generalization of epidemiological models for infectious diseases that consider the transmission parameter as a function of time.

“This makes it possible, for example, to better accommodate the emergence of new variants of a given pathogen and a better fit of the model's projections to the data. In addition, this modeling also allows the model to provide more realistic predictions, enabling a wide range of applications, such as evaluating vaccination scenarios or estimating the underreporting of infections,” explained Jennifer.

Completing her doctorate at IMPA is one of the student's dreams come true; in March, she will return home to take up a research position at the University of Costa Rica.

Living in Rio de Janeiro since 2015, Jennifer says she always wanted to visit Brazil. She discovered IMPA when she started studying mathematics and, during a university olympiad, was introduced to the institute's researcher, Carlos Gustavo Moreira, better known as Gugu. The professor was responsible for sparking Jennifer's desire to study at IMPA.

“I’ve always been passionate about Brazil, and when I started studying mathematics, I heard Gugu talking about his work at IMPA. I was excited to come right away and signed up for a Summer Course in 2014. I knew that if I did well in the course, I would be able to apply for a master’s program the following year. I received support from my family. Everyone chipped in to pay for my trip,” said the Costa Rican, who completed two Summer Courses, a master’s degree, and will soon begin her doctorate at IMPA.

For eight years, Jennifer didn't just build an academic life: it was at IMPA that she met her partner, also a student at the institute, and now the father of her 9-month-old daughter, Fátima, who was born during her doctoral research. The three of them are traveling to Costa Rica next month.

“I am very grateful to Brazil, grateful to the SUS [Unified Health System]. They took care of all my prenatal care, treated me very well, I gave birth at the UFRJ maternity hospital and everything was great. I will love Brazil for the rest of my life and I want to come back whenever possible, I want my daughter to visit her country, to incorporate the culture here, and that of her father as well, who is from Senegal,” says the doctoral student.

Jennifer and her family are moving to San José, Costa Rica. Returning home will bring back fond memories of the beaches, dinners with friends, the bars on Rua Voluntários da Pátria in Botafogo, where she lives, nights out in Lapa, and of course, the Rio Carnival!

"It was a dream to live in Brazil. I was well received here, the people are very kind, I made friends, I started a relationship. I will take a piece of Brazil with me."

Perhaps Jennifer misses more than one Brazilian habit: breakfast. Laughing and in good humor, the Costa Rican woman recounts that it was a shock to encounter the habit of eating bread and drinking coffee upon waking up.

“I was shocked by the breakfast here. I thought it was very small. In Costa Rica, we eat Gallo Pinto, a large dish with rice, beans, egg and other things. It was bigger, but now I even think it's good not to start the day with so much food, I've incorporated the Brazilian breakfast,” she concluded enthusiastically.