ai ai ai ai....ta chegando a hora.....

Escreve Mauricio aqui. O dia ja vem raiando e eu tenho que ir embora. Isso foi o que eu escrevi ha um ano e meio sobre como eu cheguei aqui.

There are some people that have always known what they wanted to do with their lives. I am not one of them.

After high school I joined the College of Engineering in my hometown, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I had never been particularly excited about it, but this just seemed to be a thing that good math students would do in my school. The fact that both my father and my older brother had followed similar routes only reinforced that decision. Although I never had many problems with the classes, my interest in engineering went through a lot of up and downs. In retrospect, I would say the downs were the moments in which I was being true to myself, whereas in the ups I was just trying to convince me that things like electromagnetism are really exciting.

I graduated and got a job in the telecom industry, which turned out to be no more exciting than my engineering classes. I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but it was pretty clear that this was not it. Options as diverse as law or medical school and working for the central bank were all considered several times. Eventually, as I was even thinking about joining a master in mathematics (I know it doesn’t make any sense, but I was really confused!), the right option materialized. My sister, who is not in the quantitative-oriented side of the family, insisted that I would love studying marketing. Fighting my internal prejudice against what I thought would be a lot of talking and no numbers, I went back to school to get an MBA in marketing.

Two years later and despite the positive impression that I got of the marketing discipline, it still didn’t seem like a job in the marketing department of a company would make me happy. Almost as a joke, as no one would expect me to want to study full time for 5 more years, my brother suggested a PhD in marketing in the US. And to everyone’s surprise (myself included), I gradually dropped all other ideas and got more and more interested in this PhD plan. It took me a while, but I can finally say that I like what I do and I really can’t think of anything better to do - unless I can get paid to play soccer, which seems less and less likely…

The PhD program has been not only an intellectual challenge, but also an emotional experience. My wife’s love and devotion have been a constant source of support throughout these rollercoaster PhD years. In addition to her constant encouragement
I also need to thank Erica for taking a genuine interest in my research, helping me clarify my thoughts attentive listening to my half baked ideas. We discussed so many of my research ideas that she should probably be a co-author in anything I do.

I’ve been lucky to find such a pleasant environment in the marketing department that has helped me develop my research skills. I am especially in debt with Shanker, whose open door policy is probably abused by me. Shanker has been extremely important both in providing guidance in the research process as well as being a career mentor. I also would like to thank Shelly, Adam, Rosann and Rockney for providing comments on my research at several points in time as well as career advice.

I am still amazed on how little I knew about research when I got here. I benefited (and I still do) from the experiences that my colleagues Mike, Arun, Shuoyang, Huifang, Chuck and Yacheng have shared with me. Thank you all.