IMPA mourns the death of former minister José Israel Vargas.
IMPA deeply regrets the passing of physicist and former Minister of Science and Technology and former President of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences José Israel Vargas, which occurred this Thursday (15), at the age of 97. The institute expresses its solidarity with Vargas' family, friends and colleagues, whose memory and legacy will continue to inspire generations of Brazilian researchers.
“As a scientist, president of the Academy of Sciences, and Minister of Science and Technology, Israel Vargas's career has been marked by the defense and promotion of Brazilian science, constituting a model of leadership for our scientific community that honors us all,” highlighted the Director-General of IMPA, Marcelo Viana.
Born in 1928 in Paracatu, Minas Gerais, Vargas was an emeritus professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG); he played a central role in formulating nuclear energy policy in Brazil in the early 1960s, and served as Minister of Science and Technology in the governments of Itamar Franco and Fernando Henrique Cardoso. The scientist also served as president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) from 1991 to 1993 and of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). His work was always guided by ethics, competence, and dedication to the advancement of science.
Trajectory
Having graduated in chemistry from UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), Vargas studied physics at the Technological Institute of Aeronautics and obtained a doctorate in nuclear sciences from the Faculty of Physics and Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom. Upon returning to Brazil, he became a professor at UFMG, where he directed the Institute of Radioactive Research, and was a technical advisor to the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN). He was also a researcher at the Brazilian Center for Physics Research.
In 1964, during the military coup, his laboratory was seized by the army, and Vargas was dismissed from CNEN and removed from UFMG. He then voluntarily went to France and stayed there for almost seven years, working as a researcher at the Center for Nuclear Studies of the Atomic Energy Commission in Grenoble, France, where he led a research group.
His academic career was marked by the development of work on nuclear transformations in solids and the modeling of energy systems. In the public sector, he was Secretary of Science and Technology of Minas Gerais. As Minister (1992-1999), he spearheaded significant achievements in the field, such as the expansion and consolidation of the National Education and Research Network (RNP). He also worked to improve the quality of national production, enhancing the National Intellectual Property System and Metrology and Standardization.
Abroad, Vargas was a member of the Advisory Committee on Policies for International Intellectual Cooperation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and served on the Council of the Institute for Advanced Study at the United Nations University, where he helped develop a research project for a computer-to-computer language that would allow for the automatic translation of languages. Vargas also served as Brazil's ambassador to UNESCO and president of its Executive Council.
Vargas leaves behind three daughters: Cláudia, Joana, and the chemist Maria Vargas, a member of the ABC (Brazilian Academy of Sciences) and the Scientific and Technical Council of IMPA (Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics).
With information and photo from the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.