Denise de C. Rossa-Feres

Phyllomedusa Journal of Herpetology

Rossa-Feres, Denise de C.

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Marcelo Menin (1975–2021)

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SobituaryMarcelo Menin (1975–2021)Denise de C. Rossa-FeresUniversidade Estadual Paulista – UNESP - o os  do io reto   ra i  E-mail: denise.rossa-feres@unesp.br.
Phyllomedusa 20(1):131–133, 2021
© 2021 Universidade de São Paulo - ESALQ 
ISSN 1519-1397 (print) / ISSN 2316-9079 (online)
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9079.v20i1p131-133
Is it possible to be a pleasant and calm 
person and also a tireless and competent 
professional? Know about Marcelo Menin.
osses are a a s sad and diffic t  n t is 
very complicated period that we are going 
through with the Brazilian government attacking 
and discrediting science and minorities, with the 
uncontrolled pandemic in Brazil, and many other 
attacks on common sense, on the respect for 
differences and for the justice, certain qualities 
such as serenity, resilience, competence, 
dedication, ability to aggregate people, to work 
tirelessly, capacity to overcome challenges and 
limitations without complaining, and keeping a 
calm persistence, are more than necessary. Sadly, 
unfortunately, we lost a lot of those at the 
beginning of this 2021 year with the departure of 
Marcelo Menin, taken from our coexistence by 
Covid in Manaus at the age of 45.
Marcelo Menin gathered these and many 
other qualities together. An internal and common 
joke among those who knew him was to say: - 
Talking about Menin’s qualities is easy, I want 
to see someone to findin  a a   ver  specia  
honest and fair person, with a very kind and 
pleasant presence, of comprehensive, calm and 
welcoming personality. A professional of the 
highest competence, dedicated, extremely 
organized, assertive, tireless, generous and 
extremely patient with our limitations, confusions 
and much slower pace than his. Most importantly, 
he was always the same person in any situation 
and with anyone. The pleasant and calm person 
and the tireless and competent professional were 
an inseparable fusion, and this represented a lot 
in terms of s pport and nderstandin  in diffic t 
times in which all of us, his colleagues, students 
and advisers have gone through our lives; in 
terms of encouragement and inspiration in times 
of discouragement; in terms of showing us the 
way and the ways of acting correctly and 
competently, without hurting or belittling 
anyone!
Professor at the Universidade Federal do 
Amazonas (UFAM) since 2006, his competence 
is evidenced in his curriculum, with more than 
 p b ications inc din  scientific artic es  
books and book chapters. This number will 
Marcelo Menin at IX Congresso Brasileiro 
de Herpetologia, Campinas, 2019.
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Phyllomedusa - 20(1), June 2021
increase even more, as Marcelo Menin was at 
the peak of his career, having still many 
researches in progress in partnership with several 
colleagues which, as much painful it may be, 
they i  be fina i ed in is onor and memor
He was passionate about the Amazon Forest, 
avin  reat  contrib ted to t e fi  of one of 
the most important gaps in Brazilian Herpetology 
knowledge: the lack of information about biology 
and natural history. Since very young he was an 
amateur naturalist, maintaining and observing 
many different animals in his house and making 
fie d e c rsions it  is friends in a  is 
hometown), as used to tell us Gustavo Quevedo 
Romero (professor at UNICAMP), his friend 
since the Fundamental School. In line with his 
passion, Marcelo Menin published several 
articles with new and important information on 
habitat use, diet, and anuran behavior from the 
Central Amazonia, as well as described the 
tadpoles of 17 species (three of which are 
redescriptions). He also published in community 
ecology of anurans, lizards and snakes.
At UFAM he was the Coordinator of the 
Postgraduate Program in Zoology, of which he 
was one of the creators. In this Program, he was 
the advisor of 20 students (master’s and 
doctorate), in addition to having supervised 43 
undergraduate students or graduated technicians. 
Currently, he was supervising two PhD students, 
t ree master st dents  one for scientific initiation 
and a graduated technician, with a scholarship 
linked to a project of which he was the 
coordinator.
In addition, he was the sub-curator of the 
Paulo Bührnheim Amphibian Collection and the 
founder of the Tadpoles collection, both of them 
at UFAM. He obtained CNPq’ government 
financia  for fo r ma or pro ects in ic  e as 
the coordinator, and also he was an ad-hoc 
reviewer to CNPq for many times. He yet was a 
revie er of scientific artic es for more t an  
scientific o rna s  t e vast ma orit  from abroad  
and he was a member of more than 80 master’s 
and doctoral judging boards. These and other 
information abo t arce o enin s scientific 
Marcelo Menin in the field at Reserva Ducke-Manaus, 
an area that he walked throughout all many times, and 
where he developed many of his projects. 
Photo: Domingos J. Rodrigues.
production, research projects and professional 
life can be accessed at: http: //lattes.cnpq. br / 
3661952638867868. Anyhow, this is a small 
technical summary that does not come close to 
representing the generous and aggregator 
professional that was Marcelo Menin. For 
instance  as one of t e first professors to obtain 
f ndin  from  in is scientific area at 
UFAM, he sought to develop broad projects 
which included colleagues who studied other 
taxonomic groups, in addition of course, to 
seeking the best possible knowledge about the 
biodiversity of the Amazon Forest.
A very dedicated professor, responsible and 
passionate about teaching, he was one of the 
most beloved professors by students, having 
received many honors at graduation ceremonies 
and other events. As a result of his dedication, 
competence, and productivity as a professor as a 
researcher, he achieved great recognition in the 
academic environment  avin  been an affi iated 
member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences 
and received a CNPq Research Productivity 
Grant, in addition to several awards, including 
one from the City Council from Manaus, for the 
relevant services rendered to the society of the 
Rossa-Feres
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Phyllomedusa - 20(1), June 2021
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area of Biology, in addition to several honorable 
mentions to research results presented in 
scientific events
Personally, I met Marcelo Menin in 1995, 
when he started his undergraduate course in 
io o ica  ciences at o os  do io 
Preto- SP, where I am a professor. His great 
interest, his seriousness and the evident 
knowledge that he already had, besides making 
me fee  e treme  tr sted in im since t e first 
contact, made me accept him as an intern, 
together with his classmate Tiago J. Izzo 
(Professor at Universidade Federal de Mato 
Grosso), despite both of them were still in the 
1st year of the course, and the Ecology course I 
taught was only offered in the 3rd year. The 
internship program was developed by Tiago and 
him with such a quality and success that it 
res ted in t e first scientific p b ication of t e 
two friends. In addition to being an excellent 
intern, Marcelo was an excellent student in the 
undergraduate course, maintaining this standard 
in the Master Course (Ecology and Conservation 
of Natural Resources, Universidade Federal de 
Uberlândia, supervised by Ariovaldo A. Giaretta) 
and along his PhD (Ecology, Instituto Nacional 
de Pesquisas da Amazônia, supervised by 
Albertina P. Lima).
In Manaus he met Sumaia Vasconcellos, his 
wife, an agronomist and PhD in Tropical Forest 
Sciences-INPA, a spectacular hardworking, 
generous and competent person, in short, the 
ideal life partner! With her he gained two 
stepchildren, Karol and Rômulo, and a daughter, 
Maria Clara, who is now 9 years old. He was a 
loving and dedicated husband and a responsible 
and passionate father for his children.
Marcelo Menin was a great research partner, 
totally reliable, extremely organized, calm, 
persevering, competent, cooperative, resolute 
and generous, assertive and an aggregator. I had 
Marcelo Menin and his family: Sumaia Saldanha de 
Vasconcelos Menin, his wife; Susan and Rômulo 
Vasconcelos Valentim, his stepchildren, and Maria 
Clara, his 9 years old daughter, in 2018 January at 
Susan’s Architeture Graduation ceremony.
the honor of sharing with him the authorship of 
several articles, books and book chapters, in 
addition to having some still in progress, which 
i  be fina i ed in is onor  t more t an a  
of that, or along with all of that, Menin was a 
great friend, a son of my heart, supportive, 
tr st ort  and inspirin  enever  find 
m se f at an impasse  t in : at o d 
Menin do in this situation?” And I will continue 
with this habit because he left with us his 
example of conduct, love and unrestricted respect 
for science, teaching and to all people. 
Rest in peace dear friend, your mission has 
been accomplished with immense success and 
you will continue to bear fruit here, through his 
many students, advisers, and professional 
colleagues, who will certainly take his legacy of 
dedication, correctness, honesty and passion in 
doing science and teaching to the future 
generations of professors and researchers.
Obituary: Marcelo Menin (1975–2021)


https://www.revistas.usp.br/phyllo/article/download/187600/173282

Marcelo Menin (1975–2021)

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