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Three professors from the Faculty of Education receive the 2025 Institutional Awards from Unicamp.

Helena Sampaio, Pedro da Cunha Pinto Neto, and Lilian Cristine Ribeiro Nascimento are recognized for their contributions to research, undergraduate teaching, and university outreach.

16 Dec 2025
authorship Marco Pinotti
Photography Laura Santos Guilherme Prado Antoninho Perri

The Unicamp Institutional Awards 2025 ceremony was held on Friday, December 12th, at the Convention Center (CDC), bringing together the university community to recognize trajectories and initiatives that express the University's commitment to teaching, research, and outreach. A total of 74 awards were distributed: 23 professors received the Zeferino Vaz Academic Recognition Award; 24 received the Teaching Recognition Award for Dedication to Undergraduate Teaching; and 22 received the Proeec University Extension Award, in addition to other distinctions focused on research careers and technical colleges.

A horizontal collage that joins three photographs vertically, side by side. The first is of a woman holding an award, the second is of a man holding an award, and the third is of a woman holding an award. End of description.

For the Faculty of Education (FE), the awarding of three professors reinforces the centrality of the work developed in the unit in complementary areas of university life: the production of knowledge about Brazilian education, the training of teachers at the undergraduate level, and the construction of extension activities based on effective partnerships with public schools. From the FE, the following were honored: Professor Dr. Helena Maria Sant'Ana Sampaio Andery (Zeferino Vaz Award), Professor Dr. Pedro da Cunha Pinto Neto (Faculty Recognition Award for Dedication to Undergraduate Teaching), and Professor Dr. Lilian Cristine Ribeiro Nascimento (Proeec University Extension Award).

Commenting on the institutional significance of the celebration, Rector Paulo Cesar Montagner emphasized that the award “transcends individual merit,” as it symbolizes Unicamp's university project. Highlighting the award that honors the University's founder, Montagner observed that Zeferino Vaz understood that the consolidation of a research university requires a highly qualified faculty committed to high standards of research and teaching. This vision is evident, in distinct ways, in the three recognized career paths at the Faculty of Education.

Awarded the “Zeferino Vaz” prize, Helena Sampaio emphasized the symbolic dimension of the recognition: “Receiving the Zeferino Vaz Prize, which bears the name of the founder of our university, is a great honor for me. I am very happy for this recognition, especially because it is granted by our peers.” Recalling more than three decades of research on higher education, the professor contextualized the transformations of the sector in Brazil—expansion, decentralization, and privatization—and highlighted that, in the last decade, affirmative action policies and initiatives of state public universities, such as Unicamp, have been altering the historically elitist profile of public institutions. For her, however, democratization is not just about expanding access: “access policies must go hand in hand with retention policies and, more broadly, with student assistance policies that go beyond financial and material support.” By investigating how different institutions formulate and implement access and retention policies, Helena points to the production of a "virtuous circle of records and reflection" with students, faculty, and technical teams, capable of contributing to institutional improvement in the medium and long term.

Photograph showing three people standing on a stage at an event. From left to right: a white man wearing black formal attire, a white woman wearing a blue dress, and a black man wearing gray formal attire. The woman is holding a certificate. The setting is indoors and well-lit, the wall is dark blue, and there is a wooden table and flags on the stage. End of description.
Photograph showing three people standing on a stage at an event. From left to right: a white man wearing black formal attire, a white woman wearing a blue dress, and a black man wearing gray formal attire. The woman is holding a certificate. The setting is indoors and well-lit, the wall is dark blue, and there is a wooden table and flags on the stage. End of description.

Winner of the Teaching Recognition Award for Dedication to Undergraduate Teaching, Professor Pedro da Cunha Pinto Neto highlighted teaching as future-oriented work: “We train professionals who will work in the next three or four decades, educating new generations in a society that is always in transition.” Throughout his career at the Faculty of Education and in teacher training programs, he emphasized the importance of a humanistic education that broadens individuals' repertoire of understanding and positioning in relation to reality, comprehending education as a decisive dimension in confronting inequalities and building conditions for a dignified life. When commenting on the desired impact in the training of future Science and Chemistry teachers, Pedro emphasized the articulation between multiple areas of knowledge and a general culture that helps to form critical individuals committed to the common good: “To educate is to share and exchange knowledge.” The motivation to remain in graduate school, even after years in institutional coordination and projects, emerges from the experience of constant renewal: he points out that student diversity — amplified by inclusion policies — reconfigures questions, challenges, and possibilities, keeping the meaning of formative work alive.

Photograph showing three men standing on a stage at an event. From left to right: white man wearing black formal attire, white man wearing blue formal attire and holding a certificate, and black man wearing gray formal attire. The setting is indoors and well-lit, the wall is dark blue, and there is a wooden table and flags on the stage. End of description.
Photograph showing three men standing on a stage at an event. From left to right: white man wearing black formal attire, white man wearing blue formal attire and holding a certificate, and black man wearing gray formal attire. The setting is indoors and well-lit, the wall is dark blue, and there is a wooden table and flags on the stage. End of description.

The Proeec University Extension Award, given to Professor Lilian Cristine Ribeiro Nascimento, recognizes an eleven-year career anchored in continuous partnership with the municipal public school system and focused on the education of deaf people. For Lilian, the award formalizes work built "in effective partnership between the university and the public education network," initiated from a concrete demand of CEMEJA Sérgio Rossini, a municipal school that stands out as a bilingual center for the deaf. The initiative consolidated and included other institutions recognized as bilingual centers, such as EMEFEI Júlio de Mesquita and CEI Manoel Afonso Ferreira, involving more than forty Unicamp students in the construction of digital learning objects, interactive games, and portfolios, in direct collaboration with teachers from the schools. Lilian highlights that the award especially benefits university students and teachers from partner schools, and observes impacts on student engagement and the initial training of undergraduates—both in the pedagogical use of technologies and in learning Libras (Brazilian Sign Language)—with long-term effects, including the choice of professional and academic paths in the field. Finally, she draws attention to the institutional challenges of including deaf students in undergraduate programs, arguing that increased access must be accompanied by structural adaptations (such as increased interpreter staffing) and a review of methodologies, on a campus where Libras needs to be effectively embraced as a vehicular language.

Photograph showing two women standing on a stage at an event. The woman on the left is white and wearing a white dress, and the woman on the right is white, wearing an orange dress and holding a certificate. The setting is indoors and well-lit, the wall is dark blue, and there is a wooden table and flags on the stage. End of description.
Photograph showing two women standing on a stage at an event. The woman on the left is white and wearing a white dress, and the woman on the right is white, wearing an orange dress and holding a certificate. The setting is indoors and well-lit, the wall is dark blue, and there is a wooden table and flags on the stage. End of description.

By bringing together, in a single ceremony, the celebration of research, teaching, and outreach, the 2025 Institutional Awards reaffirm what Montagner defined as "a large complex of university work," in which pedagogical practices, knowledge production, and social commitment mutually strengthen each other. For the Faculty of Education, the presence of three professors among the winners highlights the diversity of areas in which the Faculty operates—training educators, producing critical reflection on higher education, and building consistent bridges between the university and the community.

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