A glimpse of Brazil in IMPA's Summer Courses

Anne's desire, like that of many of these students, is to be a researcher at IMPA. Her uncle, Antônio Marcos de Oliveira – a professor of Calculus and Algebra at UESPI (State University of Piauí) – who accompanied her to Rio, says that "she drops everything to attend math classes." Besides attending the university-level classes that Antônio teaches, Anne also gets extra help from another uncle and participates in the project called "Viva a Geometria" (Long Live Geometry), run by Webert Ney, a teacher in the Piauí state school system.

One of the stars of the Summer Course is Lucas Aragão, 18 years old, from Sergipe, who achieved first place overall in the 2016 Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad (OBM) at the university level. A recent graduate in Mathematics from UFS (Federal University of Sergipe), the young man from Aracaju came to IMPA to pursue a Master's degree after winning several medals. He had already won three other gold and two silver medals in the OBMEP between 2009 and 2013.

“In high school, there weren’t any stimulating problems. My math average was 9.9. It was at the Olympiad and in college that I saw how cool math could be,” said Lucas, who still doesn’t know what he intends to study at IMPA. Like many, he developed in mathematics thanks to a special teacher. He was a student in the project of Valdemberg Araújo, from the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS), coordinator of the Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad (OBM) in that state. The professor organizes study groups for promising young mathematicians. The work has been so successful that the future master's student wasn't the only person from Sergipe to come to the IMPA Summer Course. Lucas's roommate in Rio, Felipe Bonfim, 16, a student at Colégio Master in Aracaju, was another young person who developed in Valdemberg's classes.

In the Summer Course, which runs until the end of February, students have classes three times a week and three final exams. Many don't stay until the end. "The level of demand is extremely high here," said Guilherme Feltes, 20, a programmer and mathematics student at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS).

The students are thrilled with the opportunity to interact with renowned professionals in Mathematics. “It’s a privilege to be close to the most inspiring people in the field, like Artur Ávila, Carlos Gustavo Moreira (Gugu), among others,” said the student from Rio Grande do Sul, a medalist in the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools) and former recipient of a PIC (Scientific Initiation Program) scholarship in 2009, 2011, and 2012. Guilherme reveals that the first thing he wanted to do after entering university was the IMPA Summer Course.