Alumni testimonial - Dr Daniel Cohen Goldemberg

I completed my PhD in oral medicine and oral pathology at UCL Eastman in 2011. I chose to study here mainly because of the Institute’s academic excellence and international reputation; also, I have always enjoyed the English language and British culture. Living in London was another great motivation for this big change in my life during my PhD. Rio de Janeiro, the city I was born in and where I lived my whole life before moving to the UK, is a very different city compared to London.

I enjoyed the cosmopolitan vibe that reflects what you actually see in London generally. Meeting and studying with people from all over the world was a very enriching experience both culturally and academically speaking. I enjoyed basic classes from UCL and benefited from an extensive amount of advanced molecular techniques that were of good use for my thesis.

After graduating, I worked straight away as a lecturer at the Federal University of Niterói (UFF) in the State of Rio de Janeiro and as a researcher at Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), both highly prestigious institutions in Brazil, for about two years. Later I did a three-year postdoc at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), where I did my undergrad and specialisation in Oral Medicine before moving to London for my PhD.

I am now a lecturer at Faculdades São José (FSJ), a fast growing private dental school with a great team of dentistry lecturers. I also currently work as a researcher at the National Cancer Institute of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, working with oral cancer and pre-cancer. During all these years after returning to my home city, I have also practiced oral medicine and oral pathology in my private practice.

I have always known since the early times of my undergraduate studies that I would work with my current specialities. Oral medicine and oral pathology were always the subjects that interested me the most and inspired me to always learn more and go deeper in my studies. I love that I can continue to work within my area of expertise. I suggest this choice is motivated via love rather than any other reason, since it will take a substantial part of our lives.

Apart from the prestige, it brought to my private practice of simply studying abroad, during all my past and current jobs, I am able to apply knowledge acquired at Eastman. I have also implemented two molecular laboratories for oral pathology and dentistry in public institutions that had no such infrastructure available. It also helped me in order to make my dream of working for the National Cancer Institute of Brazil come true.