Eric Zettermman

My name is Eric Zettermann. I live in Laguna, a beautiful historical city in the south of Brazil. Me, my wife, and our kids (Luiza, Theo, and Lara) love all kinds of games and puzzles. Board Games, party games, car games, video games, music games, and everything in between.   

In a sense, real-world problems are nothing but tiny, small, big or gigantic puzzles to solve.

Since the beginning of my academic journey, which started in Mathematics back in 2005, I have learned to understand and analyze challenges as if they were puzzles. Sometimes you need time and creativity to tackle them. In some cases you need technical tools or a sophisticated framework to model them. There are also times when you need to ask for help. Each puzzle or challenge is unique, beautiful, and worthy. They always teach you something when you let yourself get involved.

The second part of my journey began in 2011 when I started to teach at the university. That revealed a whole new perspective to me: everyone has a unique perspective. People have different ways to live, different beliefs  and, therefore, different ways to see and make sense of what they see. And if you want to get through them, to reach them, you will have to contaminate a bit with that perspective to create a real connection and make a difference in a learning and teaching context. 

Then, I decided to do my Ph.D. Another big step in my journey. At that time, I was already working at the Fishing Engineering & Biology Department at the University of the State of Santa Catarina (UDESC). I didn’t go for a Ph.D. in Mathematics, though. Instead, I chose the program in Ecology from the Federal University Santa Catarina (UFSC). Already in the program, I was challenged to write a thesis that would combine ecology, economics, and game theory and apply them to fishery management. Then another insight hit me: everything is connected. Understanding the ecosystem of a problem, designing a solution, solving, testing, applying…Sometimes these steps are performed in silos, by disjoint teams, but they are all connected. When you are able to see the big picture, your contribution became more impactful and more robust. 

Since 2020 I have been consistently contributing to Mip Wise and it have been a wonderful experience. I feel privileged to be part of this process of turning a shared vision into reality. Starting with long conversations about the design of the logo and choosing a name for the organization to proposing and solving puzzles, all I’ve seen are really nice people doing a really serious job. I am just grateful to be part of this.