07/07/2022

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awards Brazilian

Crédito: Reinaldo Mizutani

Brazilian Tiago Pereira da Silva was one of the winners of the 2022 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Prize , awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation . Based in Germany, the Foundation is dedicated to promoting scientific cooperation among scholars worldwide. Pereira was recognized for his mathematical contributions in the field of complex dynamical networks and collective behavior.

The prize is named in honor of the German astronomer and mathematician Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784-1846), and is awarded to internationally renowned academics in recognition of their outstanding achievements in research in various fields, such as mathematics, physics, medicine, biology, and others. Winners are invited to spend up to one year collaborating on a project with experts in their field at a research institution in Germany and receive €45,000.

A researcher at the Institute of Mathematical and Computer Sciences of the University of São Paulo (ICMC-USP), in São Carlos, Pereira is the fourth Brazilian to win the prize. The first three were Fábio Armando Tal, professor at the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics (IME-USP), João Marcos de Almeida, from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), and Pedro Antonio Santoro Salomão, also from IME-USP.

Currently, the professor's central research topic concerns collective behavior in complex networks, with an emphasis on dynamical systems theory and random matrix theory. “The Bessel Prize is highly prestigious and encompasses all areas of knowledge, not just mathematics. Therefore, the competition is very fierce. Being awarded the prize demonstrates the international prominence of Brazilian mathematics and our institute's ability to produce excellent science, competing with major international centers,” commented Tiago in an article on the USP – São Carlos website.