The Provost for International Cooperation
Professor Sergio Persival Baroncini Proença
Professor Sergio P. B. Proença is a bachelor in Civil Engineering by the Federal University of Paraná (1978), a master and PhD in Civil Engineering (Structures) by the University of São Paulo/S. Carlos (1981 and 1988, respectively), and a post-doctorate by the Polytechnic University of Milan (1990-1991). Proença obtained the title of associate professor (1997) and, in January 2004, he was approved to the position of full professor at the Structural Engineering Department at USP’s Engineering School of São Carlos (EESC/USP).
For an assortment of short time periods, Proença was a visiting researcher at the Cachan’s Laboratory of Mechanics and Technology (France), at Lisbon’s Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal), and at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (USA). Invited by the Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy), Proença collaborates as a Senior Resident Researcher in model formulation in the area of Mechanics of Structures and Materials. The professor has also been developing research related to Computational Mechanics with emphasis on Structural Engineering.
Proença develops projects and maintains close collaborations with the Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy), the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (USA), with Lisbon’s Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal), Swansea University (Wales), with the Laboratory of Mechanics and Technology of Paris-Saclay University (France), and Chongqing University (China). 
At the Structural Engineering Department of the São Carlos Engineering School, Proença was coordinator of the Postgraduate program of Structure Engineering and, later, he became a Research Coordinator and Head of Department. As a faculty member of EESC, Proença was Research Coordinator, President of the Commission of International Cooperation (CCInt/EESC), member of the EESC Innovation Center and Vice-dean.
As a professor of USP, Proença participated in a variety of evaluative commissions, such as President of the Sectorial Evaluation Commission (CAS) — civil engineering — for two cycles and, more recently, member of the Career and Teaching Activities Work Group as well as member of the Teaching Activities Council (CAD), which is part of the Permanent Commission for Evaluation (CPA). On a broader scale, he was President of the Assisting Committee (CA Civil) for Engineering I at CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development).
At the moment, Sergio Proença is Aucani’s President (acronym for USP Agency for National and International Academic Cooperation aka USP International Cooperation Office) and USP’s Provost for International Cooperation, nominated by Rector Magnificus Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Junior.