Students were among 950 winners from across Brazil and received R$ 5,000; Caio Ávila took fifth place
Seven students in the first year of their bachelor’s program in Science and Technology at the Ilum School of Science at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) have received the CAPES University Talent Prize. This competition recognizes the performance of nearly one thousand Brazilian students on a test containing 80 general knowledge questions. The winners were selected from 4,900 participants from across the country, and will receive R$ 5,000.
Students who entered university programs during the second half of 2024 or first half or 2025 were eligible to participate in the competition. Of the 40 Ilum students who met the criteria, 22 took the test in May in the city of São Carlos, São Paulo.
Caio Ávila Paulo, an Ilum student from Brasília (DF), got the fifth-highest score across the entire field and had no trouble answering the questions. “I thought the test was easy, I only had a bit of difficulty with Spanish. Since the test was very similar to the ENEM [high school completion exam], any of my classmates at Ilum could have gotten the same score as me,” he said.
His classmate Joaquim Júnior Ferola affirms that test was like the ENEM he took in November 2024. “The questions cover things we learned throughout high school and were able to dive deeper into during our studies at Ilum,” he said.
In addition to Caio and Joaquim, the other Ilum students who won awards were Ana Carolina Sayumi Imahata Alves, Lívia Maria Barbosa de Aragão, Vitor Araújo Bairral, Giulio Oertel Spinelli Roux César and Leonardo Ritchielly dos Santos Vieira.
Some intend to invest the prize money they won. Ana Carolina, on the other hand, is going to save part of it for graduate school, but plans to use the remainder for another dream she has been putting off: “I’m finally going to get my driver’s license.”
The University Talent Prize was created in 2019 by CAPES, the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, in order to recognize students’ efforts and encourage them to keep learning.
About the Ilum School
Ilum offers a free undergraduate degree program that utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to train scientists and professionals in science and technology. With an innovative educational model, the three-year full-time bachelor program offers courses that connect life sciences, materials science, data science, artificial intelligence, and the humanities in order to prepare researchers to work in an ethical and collaborative manner in the search for solutions to the global challenges of the twenty-first century. The Ilum School of Science is funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC) and is part of the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) in Campinas, São Paulo, a social organization overseen by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MCTI). Ilum’s educational mission offers early contact with experimental activities, in teaching labs at the school as well as at CNPEM, in projects carried out together with researchers.
About CNPEM
The Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) is home to a state-of-the-art, multi-user and multidisciplinary scientific environment and works on different fronts within the Brazilian National System for Science, Technology and Innovation. A social organization overseen by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), CNPEM is driven by research that impacts the areas of health, energy, renewable materials, and sustainability. It is responsible for Sirius, the largest assembly of scientific equipment constructed in the country, and is currently constructing Project Orion, a laboratory complex for advanced pathogen research. Highly specialized science and engineering teams, sophisticated infrastructure open to the scientific community, strategic lines of investigation, innovative projects involving the productive sector, and training for researchers and students are the pillars of this institution that is unique in Brazil and able to serve as a bridge between knowledge and innovation. CNPEM’s research and development activities are carried out through its four National Laboratories: Synchrotron Light (LNLS), Biosciences (LNBio), Nanotechnology (LNNano), Biorenewables (LNBR), as well as its Technology Unit (DAT) and the Ilum School of Science — an undergraduate program in Science and Technology supported by the Ministry of Education (MEC).
