My name is Ricardo Leal and we studied at MIT at the same time as Mica and we were practically at all times together. When I receive the very sad notice that Mica passed away, many remembrances from the time Mica and I spent together came to my mind.

He was a fantastic person and since the very first moment we met, at our first day at MIT, when we were introduced by Dr. Greg Olsen, we developed an immediately mutually identification. We were both arriving from distant countries, apparently with very different cultures, with even greater differences thirty-six years ago, but quickly we identified many common points and developed a very solid friendship. One of the points I remember we were more closely identified was our mutual interest in football: Mica knew the name of the best Brazilian players by heart and I knew also some players from Yugoslavia, which at that time had also a very good team.

Of course I have many other stories from our time together at MIT, from the chili dog we used to eat very frequently at the front door at Mass. Avenue to the long studying hours we spent in some difficult subjects we attended together.

After our graduation, Mica remained in the USA and I returned to Brazil and we lost contact but last year I was very pleased to reestablish contact with him, which now seems more as a farewell.

I would like also to mention some of his best professional quality, in my opinion: his simplicity, sense of humor, search for being precise in his conclusions and probably his best quality as a researcher, his persistence and his fantastic capacity of working hard: he was by sure the hardest working person I met in all my professional life.

I express here my condolences to his familyand mention my profound admiration and friendship with Mica. .