Despite being born and raised in a Catholic Christian environment, I am now an atheist. In 2012 I have given this interview (in Portuguese), about my views regarding atheism and religion. I am also vegan since 2009, but I am not an activist, neither for veganism, nor for atheism.

I try to be respectful and mindful of others. Since Socrates we understand the more we study, the more we learn how little we know. Certainty, on the other hand, is more related to ignorance. Studying robotics, neuroscience and education, I have come to appreciate the most unique and valuable human trait is our capacity for empathy to others, not strangely, this is called being humane.

As a scientist, I am obsessed with facts, not ideas. I try to keep all ideas accountable, choosing the most likely explanation, given the facts, using the Occam’s razor principle. However, I do acknowledge our human limitations, as cultural and social beings, of holding beliefs that skew our view. I also believe skepticism and science are methods, but they do not define a goal. So I decided arbitrarily to try to pursue love and empathy as my core values.

Talking about love, I am also happily married to Helena Vitalina Selbach, a beautiful, intelligent, and independent woman, who is the most important person in my life (picture above).

I am, obviously, very passionate about robotics, and I am lucky enough to work on the field I love. However I do have some other interests, shown below.

For quite a while I was very serious about photography. Over the years, as I became more and more busy, it became difficult keeping the expensive equipment up-to-date and carrying the heavy stuff during my trips. Nevertheless I still play with photography here and there (mostly with my smartphone now).

Below you will find some examples of my photography work.

During my trips I also ended up playing a lot with architectural photos, and I am fond of some of my shots.

Once in a while I find some spare time to play with my Wacom tablet. I like drawing and doing digital collages.

Since my adolescence I wanted to be a pilot -- I never actually wanted to be a professional pilot, but I wanted to be able to fly airplanes for fun! Only recently I managed to fulfill this dream.

Since 2019 I started running with my wife. I've been working on my running posture, cadence, pace and slowly increasing distances while shortening my times.