Livia S. Eberlin facts for kids

Livia Schiavinato Eberlin is a brilliant Brazilian scientist who uses special tools to help doctors find cancer. She is an analytical chemist, which means she studies what things are made of and how they work at a very tiny level. She won a big award called the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship because of her amazing work using a method called mass spectrometry to find cancer cells.

Early Life and Education

Livia Eberlin was born in a city called Campinas in Brazil. Her father, Marcos Nogueira Eberlin, is also a famous chemist. Livia loved science from a young age. She went to the University of Campinas in Brazil and earned her first degree in 2007.

While she was still in college, she spent her summers doing research at Purdue University in the United States. This is where she started learning about mass spectrometry. After finishing her degree in Brazil, she went to Purdue University for her advanced studies, called a doctorate. She finished her doctorate in 2012. Her research was all about using mass spectrometry to look at tiny parts of cells and help find cancer.

Career Journey

After her doctorate, Livia continued her research at Stanford University. In 2015, she became a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, teaching chemistry. Later, in 2021, she joined Baylor College of Medicine as an Associate Professor. She continues to do important research there.

Amazing Cancer Research

Livia Eberlin is famous for inventing a special tool called the "MasSpec Pen," also known as "The Cancer Pen." This pen helps surgeons during operations.

How the MasSpec Pen Works

The MasSpec Pen looks like a regular pen, but it does something incredible. It touches a tiny drop of water onto the tissue during surgery. This water droplet picks up tiny molecules from the tissue. Then, the pen quickly sends these molecules to a machine called a mass spectrometer. This machine can tell if the molecules come from healthy tissue or from cancer cells.

This amazing tool helps surgeons know exactly which parts of the body have cancer and need to be removed. It makes surgeries safer and more effective.

Detecting Thyroid Cancer

Livia Eberlin also helped create a new way to find thyroid cancer. This method uses mass spectrometry to look at tiny samples taken from the thyroid. It is much more accurate than older tests, which sometimes gave unclear results. This means doctors can get clearer answers faster.

Other Important Work

Besides her work on cancer, Livia has also used mass spectrometry to help detect counterfeit money. This shows how versatile and powerful her research methods are. She also cares a lot about making sure more women and people from different backgrounds get involved in science and become leaders.

Awards and Special Recognition

Livia Eberlin has received many important awards for her groundbreaking work:

• In 2015, she was named one of Forbes magazine's "30 Under 30," which highlights young, successful people.
• In 2016, she won the Marion Milligan Mason Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This award is given to promising young female chemists.
• In 2018, she received the prestigious MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship. This award gives talented people a large sum of money to continue their important work. The foundation recognized her for her research that helps doctors tell the difference between sick and healthy tissues more quickly and accurately during surgery.
• She also won the Moore Inventor Fellowship in 2018.
• In 2020, she received the Curt Brunnée Award from the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation.
• She has been named on the Power List by the Analytical Scientist many times, including in 2014, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
• In 2024, she received the Norman Hackerman Award from the Welch Foundation.
• In 2025, she was awarded the Biemann Medal from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry.

Livia Eberlin's work is helping to change how doctors find and treat cancer, making a big difference in people's lives.