Conference celebrates Paulo Ribenboim's 90th birthday.

When Brazil took an important step towards consolidating national mathematical research with the holding of the 1st Brazilian Mathematics Colloquium (CBM), Paulo Ribenboim, from Pernambuco, was there. In the historic image taken in July 1957 in Poços de Caldas (MG), he stood out in the front row, wearing glasses and with a camera hanging around his neck. He was 29 years old.

For six decades, he attended the CBM, the most important scientific meeting of the Brazilian mathematical community. At the 31st edition , last year, at IMPA, a white-haired Rimbenboim, wearing shorts and his ever-present colorful socks, told stories about his friend and emeritus researcher at IMPA, Elon Lages Lima (1929-2017).

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Young Ribenboim, born in 1957, who became an international reference in the field of algebra, particularly in Number Theory, turned 90 on March 13. To celebrate the date, an international conference on algebra opened this Tuesday at the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics (IME) of the University of São Paulo (USP). The tribute from the institution, where he completed his doctorate, ends today (26).

Registro do 1º CBM: Ribenboim na 1ª fila, com a máquina fotográfica 

At IMPA, Ribenboim was a research assistant. Abroad, he studied in France, Germany, the United States, and Canada, where he is an emeritus researcher at Queen's University.

With approximately 250 published articles and author of several books, such as "Prime Numbers: Old Mysteries and New Records," published by IMPA in the University Mathematics Collection, and "13 Lectures on Fermat's Last Theorem," Ribenboim has won awards such as the George Pólya Award, granted by the Mathematical Association of America. The Canadian Association for Number Theory created the Ribenboim Prize, awarded every two years to young mathematicians.

In a lecture given at the 26th CBM at IMPA, Ribenboim called himself a "survivor," having been one of the 49 participants in the 1st colloquium and continuing to follow the event, which currently has around a thousand participants. In the plenary session entitled "Prime Numbers – Friends who give problems," he said that numbers reveal unexpected and very beautiful relationships, although sometimes difficult to show. "I am particularly fond of prime numbers, which of all are the ones that hold the most mysteries."

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