In 2017, Augusto Leite Pinto De Carvalho exchanged his homeland Brazil, the warm climate and ‘his’ ocean for ... Mol. Augusto followed his heart and followed his girlfriend, who at the time was completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the SCK-CEN nuclear research centre. In June 2018, he was given an internship at VITO’s ICT department by a VDAB company traineeship. He recently joined the company with a permanent contract. Augusto: “VITO is a particularly fascinating and instructive environment where researchers give the best of themselves every day to make the earth more sustainable. The difference starts with us.”

24/7 support

Augusto: “I work within a team that on the one hand develops applications for the researchers and on the other hand provides the necessary ICT support. A very differentiated job, you never know in the morning what your day will bring. We monitor applications and systems 24/7, and usually intervene before problems occur. (laughs) Within our team, we work closely together and always know from each other what we are doing. That means we can replace each other so that everything keeps going. So, we make sure that both the sales department and the researchers can work 24/7.” 

Lots of dialects

Augusto recently started to attend Dutch lessons two nights a week. And that’s quite useful, because even though VITO is a fascinating cross-pollination of nationalities from all over the world, Augusto is the only odd (language) man out at the ICT department. Augusto: “In fact, I'm the only ‘foreigner’ in our building. (laughs) But everyone is so friendly, they always try to speak English when I’m there. This flexibility does exist within VITO, because the working language of many researchers is English. I think your language is special, I hear lots of dialects here. So give me a little more time. (laughs)”  

Four seasons

Besides learning Dutch, Augusto also takes sailing lessons at Nuclea Sportsclub. Nuclea actually originated from SCK-CEN. The association offers more than 20 sports training courses to the staff of SCK-CEN and surrounding companies such as VITO.  Augusto: “In Brazil, I lived near the ocean, which, of course, I miss. So the sailing immediately attracted me. Belgium offers me a lot more, by the way. I enjoy the four seasons here enormously. And the fact that from here you can easily and quickly discover the whole of Europe.”

Skype

At the moment Augusto is living alone in Mol, because his girlfriend had to go back to Brazil for a few months to complete her post doctorate. “Of course I miss her, luckily there's Skype. In the evening, you often find me at my computer, even though I try to cut down. But computers are my passion. I have been in ICT for nine years and I would like to continue in this direction. The ICT environment is constantly changing and that makes it incredibly fascinating”, says Augusto.

Direct hit

Augusto: “When I came to Belgium, my ambition was to be in an international environment, and to get to know as many people as possible. Well, VITO was a direct hit. So many fascinating people with interesting ideas work here. Themes such as clean energy, sustainability, earth observation ... I am all ears when my colleagues talk about their work. The atmosphere is really good, I enjoy jumping on my bike every morning to come here. And as a team, we consistently finish off the week in a café. Another advantage of working in Belgium.” (laughs)