DANIDA
5.1.6.
In the following years, we developed with Elo numerous assays, and gradually learned why FIA functions so well [6,8,9,10,20]. What we could not understand was why only we and our Brazilian colleagues believed that FIA was a valuable tool and a truly novel method. We knew, however, that two independent groups working in FIA would eventually provide enough evidence to convince the skeptics. We had already met some of these in the US during our 1975 trip to Tarrytown, NY.
Fortunately, Elo had learned that the Danish government supports research in developing countries through the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), and we applied there for funds. DANIDA and IAEA worked together, and both Elias and Chico received stipends to spend one year in our Copenhagen lab. (When winter came, Elias observed that all the trees “turned to sticks.”) We also received DANIDA funds to travel to Brazil for a month each year, to bring materials and supplies, and to assist in further work at CENA. (We always chose to go south when the trees in Denmark conformed to Elias’s description.) For next six years, we were able to work with Berga, Chico, Elias, and their students to visit the Institute de Pesquisas Amazonicas in Manaus (where Berga became director), and to travel to other countries in South America.
In the following years, CENA became the leading center for analytical chemistry in Brazil, and the work of Bergamin, and of Elias and Chico’s group, has been inter-nationally recognized. The hallmark of the CENA team has been the emphasis on real life assays.
