Mackenzie's Professor is the winner of the Ester Sabino Award

Professor Maria Helena Moura Neves, from the Postgraduate Program in Letters (PPGL) of Mackenzie Presbiterian University, is the winner of the Ester Sabino Award in the Senior Researcher category, with 52 .6% of votes. The ceremony took place on February 11, the date on which the International Day of Women and Girls in Science is celebrated. The award is given to women scientists who contribute to scientific development in the state of São Paulo and is granted by the Government of the State of São Paulo.

Maria Helena, speaking to those present, emphasized that she was not going to thank them, but to talk about science. “I'm thinking about it now and I think what I should say is, 'Why is someone who does grammar and dictionary being called a scientist?'; being that, throughout the school career of most of those who are here, grammar has always been seen as something that ties, holds, dogmatizes; something absolutely alien or even contrary to science,” she questioned.

The professor is one of the greatest grammar experts in Brazil and internationally recognized. Writer of books such as Grammar of Uses of Portuguese; Grammar: history, theory and analysis, teaching and The grammar of Portuguese revealed in texts, elementary for study on the subject. “It's the notion of seeing science in the humanities and in Language and the need to always keep the name and action of those who led us to where we are”, she said when exposing some of her research.