23/08/2018

A tribute to the father of differential geometry in Brazil.

In the IMPA auditorium, a day of tribute to Manfredo do Carmo's 90th birthday.

Karine Rodrigues

At 40, while pursuing his post-doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States, Manfredo do Carmo gazed at the future that unfolded after switching from Engineering to Mathematics. In the 1968 photograph, he is alone. Decades later, the result of his successful career is visible in a 2014 image at the School of Differential Geometry at the University of Brasília (UnB): with white hair and a cane, he is surrounded by a large group of mathematicians from various parts of Brazil, most of whom were there because they had followed in the footsteps of their mentor, who died last April .

Em Berkeley, fotografado por George M. Bergman

In the time span between the two photographs, exhibited at the Manfredo do Carmo Conference, held this Wednesday (22), at IMPA, the father of differential geometry in Brazil made fundamental contributions to the area and became known worldwide. He produced a legacy that was remembered during the tribute in the house he helped to build and where he spent more than three decades. If he were alive, he would have turned 90 this month.

Manfredo, de agasalho vermelho e bengala, cercado por herdeiros acadêmicos

During this period, the emeritus researcher at IMPA supervised 26 doctoral students, who, in turn, spread his legacy. The academic family tree of the Alagoas native is in its third generation and currently has 145 heirs, according to data compiled up to July of this year by Professor Emeritus Keti Tenenblat of the University of Brasília (UnB), Manfredo's first doctoral student.

"These people make up a large part of the current community of geometers in Brazil," Keti noted, adding that, in addition to this group, several other mathematicians were influenced by the man from Alagoas.

Codá veio de Princeton para homenagear o mestre, que o inspirou a seguir a geometria

Fernando Codá, a researcher at Princeton University in the United States, was one of them. Although he chose to go abroad to pursue a deeper understanding of geometric analysis, his previous time at IMPA, where he worked with Manfredo, was crucial to his career path.

“I had the privilege of having a student-mentor relationship and, later, a collaborator relationship with him. I learned a lot from him in those office conversations,” revealed Codá, who came to Rio exclusively to honor his mentor.

From his doctorate at Berkeley, under the guidance of the most prominent geometer of the time, Shiing-Sheng Chern (1911-2004), and his thesis published in the journal "Annals of Mathematics" – "The Cohomology Ring of Certain Kahlerian Manifolds" – in 1963, to the theorems he proved and seminal publications in the field – "Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces" has versions in English, Spanish, German, Chinese, Russian, and Portuguese – Codá recounted the main episodes of Manfredo's academic life. He also highlighted how he approached life: "with sympathy, extreme wisdom, and a sense of humor."

João Lucas, Keti, Hilário, Walcy e Viana recordam a trajetória do alagoano

Following the lecture by IMPA's extraordinary researcher Harold Hosenberg – “Minimal planes in asymptotically flat-3 manifolds” – the excellence of Manfredo's research and the traits already mentioned by Codá were highlighted by other mathematicians in a round table discussion with IMPA's Director-General, Marcelo Viana; researcher Hilário Alencar from the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL), coordinator of the Conference; João Lucas Barbosa from the Federal University of Ceará (UFC); and Walcy Santos from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

Viana highlighted the sometimes irreverent side and intellectual honesty of the man from Alagoas. Along the same lines, Walcy revealed how he was also fundamental during a critical moment in his doctoral studies, as well as generous, making space for beginning researchers at his own expense. In addition to the screening of videos sent by advisees who became colleagues, the audience participated by sharing reminiscences.

Manfredo's widow, Leny Alves Cavalcante, a senior researcher at the Advanced Neuroscience Program at UFRJ, was moved by the tribute. “It was very beautiful. And there were several stories they told here that I didn't know.” The mathematician's eldest son, from his first marriage, Manfredo Júnior, was touched when remembering his father's office. “I used to come here a lot.”

The tribute, broadcast live on IMPA's YouTube channel, ended with the unveiling of a plaque at the entrance to office 346. Before that, Alencar, with whom Manfredo also had deep ties of friendship, repeated the words of Father Paul Schweitzer, who, the day before, celebrated Mass for the 90th birthday of the Alagoas native in Rio: "As mathematicians, we have the responsibility to continue Manfredo's legacy."