Created on October 15, 1952, IMPA was the first research unit of the National Research Council (CNPq), a federal funding agency founded just a year earlier. Today, it is one of the most respected institutions in Brazilian science and one of the most renowned centers for mathematical research in the world.

At the root of this success is the fact that IMPA has always been committed to the excellence of its scientific staff, using the strictest criteria when hiring its researchers, as well as when selecting its postdoctoral fellows and students. In addition, the institute has always been open to launching new initiatives and partnerships for the advancement of mathematics in Brazil and the region.

Since its inception, IMPA’s mission has been to stimulate scientific research, train new researchers and disseminate and improve mathematical culture in Brazil. These activities, linked to each other, aim to promote knowledge of mathematics, which is fundamental to the development of science and technology in general, and in turn essential for the country’s economic and social progress.

Early days

At the time of its creation, IMPA did not have its own headquarters: it was temporarily housed in a room at the headquarters of the Brazilian Center for Physics Research (created in 1949), in Praia Vermelha, on the south side of Rio de Janeiro. The scientific staff was also small, although illustrious: in addition to the director, astronomer Lélio Gama, who also headed the National Observatory, the institute only had the young mathematicians Leopoldo Nachbin and Maurício Peixoto.

Gama’s experience and wisdom at the head of IMPA played a crucial role in the creation and consolidation of the young institute. And Nachbin and Peixoto would later be the first Brazilians invited to give lectures at the International Congress of Mathematicians, which is one of the greatest distinctions in a mathematician’s career.

Other mathematicians and scientists contributed to the consolidation of the institute, such as Professor Maria Laura Mouzinho, who was a member of IMPA’s board of directors between 1953 and 1956, as General Secretary. Professor Maria Laura was the second Secretary General, succeeding Professor Maurício Peixoto and being succeeded by Professor Manoel Teixeira da Silva.

IMPA’s academic prestige began to grow in 1957, with the organization of the first Brazilian Mathematics Colloquium, with around 50 participants. The Colloquium has been held every two years since then, without interruption. Much of Brazilian mathematics was built around it.

Consolidation

Also in 1957, IMPA moved to Rua São Clemente, in Botafogo, also in the south of Rio.

In 1962, the master’s and doctoral programs in Mathematics began, through an agreement signed with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, which officially granted master’s and doctoral degrees.

In 1967, IMPA moved again to a historic building on Rua Luiz de Camões in downtown Rio de Janeiro, which now houses the Hélio Oiticica Cultural Center.

The following year, with the support of the National Economic Development Bank (the future BNDES) and later the Financier of Studies and Projects (FINEP), as well as the CNPq itself, IMPA expanded its staff with Brazilian mathematicians working abroad or in the final stages of their doctorates at the best foreign institutions.

Also in 1968, Lindolpho de Carvalho Dias took over as director. He would go on to lead the institute’s consolidation and growth over the next 22 years, most notably the construction of its own headquarters in the Jardim Botânico neighborhood (in the south), which was inaugurated in 1981.

Growth and openness to education

In the 1970s, institutional changes at CNPq allowed IMPA to take a qualitative leap forward and expand its activities, including the creation of its own permanent body of researchers. Until then, IMPA researchers were supported by scholarships or had positions at other institutions.

Thus, new research areas were created, such as algebraic geometry, differential geometry, probability, statistics, operations research, optimization and mathematical economics. Previously, activities were concentrated on dynamic systems, differential analysis and topology. Later, the fields of partial differential equations, fluid dynamics and computer graphics were consolidated and, more recently, simplified geometry and discrete mathematics.

In 1971, IMPA became the first mathematical institution with a mandate from the Federal Education Council to award master’s and doctoral degrees, which allowed the master’s and doctoral programs to become regular. Since then, IMPA’s academic postgraduate program has always earned top marks in the evaluation of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES).

A key milestone in IMPA’s history was the construction of its own headquarters in Horto Florestal, which was inaugurated in July 1981 with an International Symposium on Dynamical Systems.

On two occasions during his mandate, Carvalho Dias was replaced as director by Elon Lages Lima, who was also elected director for the period from 1989 to 1993. Lima put his enormous academic prestige at the service of the cause of education: the High School Teacher Training Program, which he created in 1990, opened up a new and important front for the institute.

Internationalization

In 1993, Jacob Palis was elected director and held the post for ten years. It was a period of remarkable growth in the international prestige of the institute, which even hosted the International Mathematical Union (IMU) from 1991 to 1998, when Palis held the position of secretary-general of the Union. Another notable event during his tenure was IMPA’s qualification as a Social Organization in 2000.

In 1994, the Commission of the Ministry of Science and Technology that evaluated its institutes concluded that “IMPA’s excellence makes it a model of what a national institute of basic research should be and it should be provided with the conditions that allow it to preserve this excellence”.

The following year, IMPA hosted an international meeting at which the Mathematical Union of Latin America and the Caribbean was created. A long time later, in 2011, the institute once again hosted the creation of an international mathematical organization: the Mathematical Council of the Americas.

In 2000, IMPA was formally transferred from CNPq to MCT. At the same time, the studies that had begun a year and a half earlier were accelerated with a view to the possible transformation of IMPA into a Social Organization, which took place a year later. The new operating model, while keeping the institute in the public sphere, gave it greater administrative flexibility, as well as more visibility and transparency in its activities.

Strengthening social action

IMPA’s trend towards internationalization was accentuated during César Camacho’s tenure, from 2004 to 2015, which was also characterized by the substantial renewal of the scientific staff, with the hiring of young researchers. During this period, in 2005, the OBMEP (Brazilian Public School Mathematics Olympiad) was created, an unprecedented experience with an important social impact that strongly underlines IMPA’s commitment to the dissemination of mathematical knowledge.

The OBMEP is held annually by IMPA with the support of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications and the collaboration of the Brazilian Mathematical Society (SBM). The Olympiad is attended by almost the entire student population from the Fridays grade of elementary school to the end of high school. Since 2017, it has been open to all Brazilian schools, both public and private.

In 2004, a contract was signed with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the main French scientific development agency, through which IMPA was qualified as an International Joint Unit (UMI) of the CNRS. This qualification allows some of the best French mathematicians to carry out long-term internships at IMPA at no cost to the institute.

The contract with the CNRS has been renewed successively every four years by agreement between the two parties. Since 2016, the UMI has been named after Jean-Christophe Yoccoz, in honor of the mathematician who won the Fields Medal in 1994, an emeritus researcher and great friend of IMPA.

In 2011, IMPA joined the network of higher education institutions across the country that run the Professional Master’s in Mathematics in the National Network (PROFMAT), a semi-presential postgraduate program aimed at training mathematics teachers in basic education, coordinated by the Brazilian Mathematical Society with the support of IMPA.

International prominence

In 2014, Artur Avila, a researcher and PhD graduate of IMPA, was awarded the Fields Medal, the most prestigious honor in world mathematics.

In the same year, IMPA was honored with the right to organize two major events on the world mathematical calendar: the 2017 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and the 2018 International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), both in Rio de Janeiro.

At the end of 2015, Marcelo Viana, the first director who is also a PhD graduate of IMPA, took over as director.

In 2016, following an initiative originating at IMPA, the National Congress approved the Mathematics Biennium Law (Law 13.358), which dedicates the years 2017 and 2018 to the cause of mathematics, in honor of the IMO 2017 and ICM 2018 taking place in the country.

Alongside the organization of these two events, the period of the Mathematics Biennium represents a huge effort by IMPA to bring mathematics closer to Brazilian society, through initiatives such as the Mathematics Festival, launched in 2017.

In 2018, IMPA and SBM led Brazil’s successful bid to join the elite group (Group 5) of the International Mathematical Union, along with the world’s ten most advanced nations in the field.

In the same year, the foundation stone was laid for IMPA’s new campus, on land adjacent to that which the institute currently occupies in the Jardim Botânico neighborhood, donated for this purpose by private sponsors in 2014. The new campus will allow for a substantial expansion of IMPA’s activities and, consequently, its capacity to act on behalf of science and education in Brazil.