Luiz Fernando Grafulha Morales

I've got my PhD in Geosciences in 2006, at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, with a thesis entitled "A study of the crystallographic orientation in folds, grain boundaries and seismic anisotropy of muscovite-quartz mylonites". During my PhD, I spent one year (2003-2004) as a Sandwich PhD student at the University of Leeds, working with Dr. Geoffrey Lloyd and Dr. Martin Casey. After my PhD, I've worked as 2006 I have worked as Technical Officer setting up the EBSD system installed in 2005 at the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto. As possibly the only person in Brazil with expertise in EBSD at that time, I set up and developed this technique. I brought the equipment and methods into full operation and trained 4 students in its use, from sample preparation to crystallographic orientation data interpretation. In addition, I carried out a research project on the study of development of crystallographic orientations in hematite, as well on the study of seismic properties of iron ores with different mineralogies. After this period, I have spent 2.5 years as a post-doctoral research assistant at Géosciences Montpellier (Université Montpellier II), working with Dr. David Mainprice and Dr. Andrea Tommasi, with a fellowship from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-France). During this time I have made several contributions related to the innovative use and applications of EBSD measurements for a number of different materials, including mantle xenoliths, quartz-micas bearing rocks, anorthosites, gabbros and serpentine-rich rocks, metals and ceramics. I was also introduced to crystal plasticity numerical modelling to the development od crystallographic orientations via different approaches (viscoplastic self-consistent, lower bound, Taylor-Bishop-Hill) and Transmission Electron Microcopy on the study of dislocations in quartz. Since 2011, I am a Reseacrh Associate at the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) in Potsdam (Germany), where I am responsible for a scanning electron microscope (SEM) coupled with focussed ion beam (FIB), EBSD and EDS. My current interests include the development of crystallographic orientations in different materials (from deformed rocks to biominerals), deformation localization initiated by brittle percursors and lower crust/mantle deformation and transmission electron microscopy in general. In the last two years I have been working alsoon the nanotomography of materials via focussed ion beam (FIB) techniques and 3D modelling of microstructures. This technique has a great potential to be applied on the study of oil and gas shales, important energy resouces not yet explored in Brazil.