30/12/2020

2020 Retrospective: 10 IMPA news stories to remember

Despite a turbulent year filled with limitations due to the coronavirus pandemic, mathematics at IMPA was in full swing. The winning of unprecedented awards by researchers at the institute, Brazil's entry into the Top 10 of the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), and the holding of the 1st Mathematics and Industry Workshop were some of the events that marked 2020. We've selected ten news items for you to remember. Check them out!

1- Brazil enters the IMO Top 10

The Brazilian team achieved the best ranking in the country's history at the 2020 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), entering the top 10 of the competition. With one gold and five silver medals, the national team scored 165 points and achieved 10th place among the 105 participating countries, ahead of countries such as Japan, France, Germany, and Canada. Until then, Brazil's best ranking in the competition had been in 2009, when the country was in 15th place.

In its 4th participation in the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO), Brazil also did not disappoint. The team of students won two silver and two bronze medals in the competition , finishing in 15th place out of 53 participating countries.

2- Aloisio Araujo becomes emeritus researcher at IMPA.

A specialist in mathematical economics, Aloisio Araujo was named emeritus researcher at IMPA, a title that recognizes mathematicians who make an extraordinary contribution to the institute and to mathematics as a whole. At IMPA since 1978, Araujo's main research area is the study of the Central Limit Theorem and Banach Space. The inauguration was celebrated at the virtual ceremony marking IMPA's 68th anniversary , which also introduced researchers Luna Lomonaco, Paulo Orenstein, and Lucas Ambrozio as new members of the institute's faculty in 2020.

3- IMPA researchers achieve unprecedented titles.

September was a month of great celebration for IMPA researchers. In the span of a week, they won two unprecedented awards on the international stage. Carolina Araujo was the first Brazilian and second woman to win the Ramanujan Prize , awarded to mathematicians under 40 from developing countries. Luna Lomonaco was the first woman to win the UMALCA Recognition Award (Latin American and Caribbean Mathematical Union) , a distinction that recognizes the work of young mathematicians considering the originality, depth, relevance, and perspectives of each candidate, as well as their impact on the global mathematical landscape. The magazine Piauí and the newspaper Band Notícias covered the researchers' achievements .

4- IMPA organizes the 1st Workshop on Mathematics and Industry

With the goal of fostering partnerships and contributing innovative solutions to the market, IMPA held the 1st Mathematics and Industry Workshop in February , which presented mathematical tools to executives, entrepreneurs, and researchers that can contribute to the development of their products. Promoted in partnership with the Center for Mathematical Sciences Applied to Industry (CeMEAI) at USP, the Workshop had over 300 participants. Graduate and undergraduate students participated in problem-solving workshops conducted by Stone.Co, Hurb, and McKinsey & Company.

5- Marcelo Viana is elected president of the Scientific Council of the Serrapilheira Institute.

In May, the Director-General of IMPA, Marcelo Viana, was elected president of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of the Serrapilheira Institute , a private, non-profit institution dedicated to promoting science in Brazil. By assuming this position, he became a member of the institute's Administrative Council. The SAB comprises specialists from different areas and contributes to the strategic planning of new actions by the institute in promoting excellent, transparent, and diverse Brazilian science.

6- Jacob Palis receives the title of Emeritus Researcher from CNPq.

Emeritus researcher at IMPA, mathematician Jacob Palis also became an emeritus researcher at CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) in January. He was selected by the institution's Deliberative Council in recognition of his body of scientific work and his prestige in the academic community. The year 2020 also marked Palis's 80th birthday, which was celebrated at IMPA , the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), and PUC-Rio.

7- IMPA adapts to remote activities in the face of the pandemic.

With the advancement of the coronavirus pandemic in Brazil in mid-March, IMPA suspended its in-person activities and, like many institutions around the world, began a journey in a virtual format. With technology as an ally , classes took on different settings, ranging from the kitchen to the playground . To celebrate National Mathematics Week in May, the institute prepared a special program of live streams and webinars with guests such as biologist and science communicator Atila Iamarino , the CEO of the Serrapilheira Institute, Hugo Aguilaniu , mathematician Tiago Pereira from ICMC-USP , and Professor Humberto Bortolossi from the Federal Fluminense University (UFF) .

In July, National Science and Researcher Day was celebrated with the webinar "Science and Mathematics: from crisis to development" featuring the deputy director of IMPA, Claudio Landim, and guests Marcia Barbosa, from the Physics Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), and Claudia Sagastizábal, from the Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computing (IMECC) of Unicamp.

Foto: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil

8- IMPA helps TSE guarantee sanitary safety in elections

Given the risks of Covid-19 contamination, IMPA helped the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) ensure the sanitary safety of the 2020 municipal elections . With the TSE's database in hand, researchers Roberto Imbuzeiro and Paulo Orenstein worked with the Court's statistics department on the decision to extend voting hours by 1 hour to avoid crowding.

9- IMPA-SBM Journalism Award receives record number of entries.

In a year in which science journalism took center stage, with intense coverage focused on the unfolding Covid-19 pandemic, the 3rd edition of the IMPA-SBM Journalism Award broke the record for entries . A total of 227 articles were submitted from 49 media outlets across the country. This represents a 177% increase compared to the previous edition, which had 82 reports.

The winners were announced in a live broadcast on the Instagram accounts of IMPA and SBM . Superinteressante magazine, Fantástico (TV Globo), and Folha de S.Paulo won in the "Mathematics" category. GloboNews, Superinteressante magazine, and Galileu magazine won in the "Science Communication" category. The top three winners in the Mathematics and Science Communication categories participated in webinars broadcast on IMPA's YouTube channel in November.

10- Carlos Andrés Chirre, PhD from IMPA, wins the Gutierrez Prize and the CAPES Prize 2020.

The year was one of double celebration for Peruvian Carlos Andrés Chirre, who received his doctorate from IMPA in 2019. In addition to winning the 2020 CAPES Thesis Award , his doctoral thesis, defended at IMPA and supervised by Emanuel Carneiro, also won the 2020 Gutierrez Prize . Titled “Bounds for the Riemann zeta function via Fourier analysis,” the work uses tools from Fourier analysis to achieve results in analytic number theory. Currently, Andrés is doing postdoctoral research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.