02/02/2018

Brazil rises from the 5th division to the elite of mathematical research.

By decision of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), as of yesterday our country has joined the group of nations most advanced in mathematical research: Germany, Canada, China, the United States, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, Russia, and now also Brazil.

The success of a project long cherished by IMPA and the Brazilian Mathematical Society (SBM), this achievement is also the culmination of our country's unique trajectory on the world stage of mathematics.

Brazil joined the IMU in 1954. The beginning was modest: the IMU member countries are organized into five groups, according to the level of development of their mathematics, and Brazil started in group 1, the least important.

It speaks volumes about the unpreparedness of our community at the time that we have no written record of the accession: we don't know how it happened, nor even who took the initiative (I asked the IMU archives in Berlin, but I haven't received an answer yet).

Everything has changed since then.

Research groups in various mathematical fields have been created and are thriving in all regions of the country, in universities and institutes that also offer internationally recognized master's and doctoral programs: no one needs to leave Brazil anymore to achieve high-level mathematical training.

This change is strikingly evident in the data on scientific production in the country. The number of research papers by Brazilian mathematicians doubled from 2006 to 2016, and almost tenfold compared to 1986. The numbers become even more impressive when compared to world totals: while in 2006 we produced 1.53% of all world mathematics, in 2016 this percentage was already 2.35%, with a clearly upward trend. In 1986 we represented only 0.7% of the world.

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