Editorial
Last March 6, with great consternation, we received the notice of Prof. Dr. Geraldo Maia Campos' passing at the age of 75. He was one of the founders and a great encourager of the Brazilian Dental Journal.
Professor Geraldo Maia Campos retired as Editor of the Brazilian Dental Journal in January, 1995, but he remained a member of our Editorial Board, as a contributor and counselor. Professor Geraldo retired from the University of São Paulo after more than three decades of dedication to Dentistry in general and to the School of Dentistry of Ribeirão Preto of the University of São Paulo in particular. Throughout his life, he was involved in several and multiple academic and artistic activities, and was a person of great distinction in the academic and literary communities in the city of Ribeirão Preto.
Professor Geraldo taught classes in the Discipline of Pathology, but his wide knowledge extended beyond Dentistry, encompassing different areas of science and arts, including Literature and Painting. Polyglot, he applied his privileged intelligence on behalf of his colleagues, students and anyone who needed guidance. He was always willing to collaborate and teach. His knowledge in the areas of Mathematics, Statistics, Philosophy, Photography, and many others stands out in his work. Professor Geraldo developed a statistical software package (GMC program) that simplified statistical analysis of scientific research data and was promptly accepted by the Brazilian scientific community due to its ease of use, great applicability and ready access from the internet.
His deep knowledge of the Portuguese language is present in published Master's degree and PhD theses, articles and several other scientific documents. Apart from his academic carrier, Professor Geraldo was also dedicated to oil on canvas painting on his free time, wrote several novels, being a member of the Academy of Letters of Ribeirão Preto, and was also a journalist. In this activity, his stance was firm in the defense of freedom of thought and expression. With his brilliant comments, chronicles and newspaper columns, he criticized the national political class, not intimidated or silent even when Brazil was under dictatorial rule.
As a Professor, his dynamism inspired the younger generation, stimulating the students' interest in the search for scientific truth. Professor Geraldo also directed the Revista da Faculdade de Farmácia e Odontologia de Ribeirão Preto, which was published until the 1980s, at which time he joined other professors to publish the Revista de Odontologia da USP. Later, Dr. Geraldo dedicated his time to a journal edited in English that was a pioneering publication in the dissemination of Brazilian dental research worldwide: our Brazilian Dental Journal.
Throughout the years of contact with Professor Geraldo, we learned much. We are profoundly grateful for his support and guidance in setting the foundations that made the Brazilian Dental Journal one of the most important scientific publications in Brazil and an acknowledged international dental journal. We will go on struggling for keeping alive his ideals of divulgating and sharing high-quality dental research within the international scientific community.
We are privileged to have witnessed his competence, devotion to teaching, spreading of knowledge and above all his dedication to those with whom he shared his activities. His absence will be deeply felt.
Ribeirão Preto, April, 2007
The Editors
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
06 July 2007 -
Date of issue
2007
