In the first week of January, we received a tragic news. On Dec. 14, 2025 Dr. Plinio Esteban Ramirez Alvarez sadly passed away, aged just 44.

Plinio worked at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción (UNA), Paraguay, as Docente Investigador de la Carrera de Licenciatura en Administración Agropecuaria. Eduardo met Plinio years ago, as his career path brought him to Brazil, where he obtained a BA in Agricultural Economics from the Universidade Federal do Ceará, and where he obtained a Ph.D. in Agribusiness from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.

Plinio has played a very active role in connecting the RSAI to the Paraguay institute where he worked. The main technical channel connecting his university with regional science was through the use of Input-Output models. In March 2023, the RSAI organized a summer school entitled “Regional Analysis of Input-output: Applications for Paraguay”, where local students and scholars attended classes that eventually led to the generation of the first regional IO table for the Country of Paraguay. Local staff was incredibly hospitable, and laughs and talks were not missed. One of the highlights of the summer school was a soccer game played between the home team and a mix of RSAI instructors. In the picture below, Plinio is the tenth player from the left, standing up. The RSAI team wears a black and green shirt gently provided by Eduardo Haddad, with the colors of his favorite Brazilian team (América Futebol Clube from Minas Gerais). The game was fair and hard-fought, and ended up with a sumptuous barbecue offered by UNA colleagues.

We stand shocked by the sudden news. Plinio fought bravely and with a smile on his face, the same we will remember him for, against a kidney disease. He sure will be missed, and remembered, by all who had the luck to know him.