Advanced Study Program Builds Connections, Collaboration

Study experience brings Brazil's natura to MIT

For Romulo Zamberlan, MIT’s Advanced Study Program (ASP) presented an important opportunity to expand his professional perspective. He arrived with a background in research and development at Natura, Brazil’s second largest cosmetics company, encouraged to enroll by a former ASP student who now heads up the firm’s R&D.

“Everything I learned here can be directly exported to my daily work,” Zamberlan said after completing the program in 2012. “I am much more prepared [as a] professional after two semesters studying at MIT.”

But the ASP experience went far beyond personal growth. Zamberlan was instrumental in helping Natura, a $3 billion company with a network across South America, become a member of the MIT Media Lab, and the Institute’s Industrial Liaison Program. Currently holding the title of US Innovation Manager for Natura, he drove the creation of a satellite office in Cambridge to encourage the flow of new ideas — and to expand the organizational relationship.