São José dos Campos, Brasil: My brush with Physics greatness

I've talked about this trip as a vacation, but officially, I was in Brazil for work. About an hour and a half from São Paulo, the city of São José dos Campos is a mid-sized industrial city. There, the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espacias (National Institute of Space Research, or INPE) was hosting a conference at which I was participating.

It was an eventful 4 days there, and I could write about any number of interesting stories: how I managed to offend a very senior scientist at the conference; our excursion to the beach at Ubatuba; a boat tour of a tropical island and swimming in the bay; the free-flowing consumption of caipirinhas, caipivodkas, and caipisakes; the requisite Brazilian all-night party with some INPE locals; subsequently missing my 7 a.m. bus to Rio because I got back to my hotel at 6 a.m., sat down, and instantly fell asleep. (I'm not accustomed to this Brazilian style of partying; miraculously, I managed to wake up at 9 a.m. and pay a small fee to catch the next bus.) All interesting stories, but I'm just going to post about one story this time: the picture below.

Me with Niesje and Eugene Parker.