IMPA thesis wins Carlos Gutierrez Prize

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A Computer Science student from Rio de Janeiro, Felipe Ferreira Gonçalves had already completed two years of his undergraduate studies when he realized he was in the wrong place. What he really liked was Mathematics. He switched fields, earned a bachelor's degree from UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), and after completing his master's degree at IMPA (Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics), he made another academic shift: at the end of his first year of doctoral studies at the same institution, he changed his area of study. A tortuous path, but the right one. His work has just won the 2017 Carlos Gutierrez Prize.

Awarded to the best thesis in Mathematics defended in Brazil in the year prior to the award ceremony, based on originality and quality, the distinction for "Extremal Problems, Reconstruction Formulas and Approximations of Gaussian Kernels" was celebrated by Felipe, his advisor, Emanuel Carneiro, and the director-general of IMPA, Marcelo Viana, who considered the honor well-deserved: "We are very happy to see IMPA associated once again with this prize, one of the most important in Brazilian Mathematics, honoring a former researcher of the institute, our dear friend Carlos Gutierrez."

Currently an assistant professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, Felipe said he experienced “a wonderful feeling of accomplishment” upon being informed of the victory. “When you are recognized for your hard work, even more so with such a competitive award, putting modesty aside and feeling proud of your effort is extremely valuable. It will be very important for my career and has the potential to open new doors in the future,” he emphasized, adding how fortunate he was to have chosen Emanuel Carneiro as his advisor: “The person with the right balance between demandingness and friendship. I owe him a great deal.”

The admiration is mutual. For Emanuel, a researcher specializing in Analysis, Felipe is dedicated, talented, and a role model for other students. “Over these four years, he has developed multiple works, many research projects, alone or with colleagues, and not only from Brazil. It is a satisfaction and an honor to receive such a prestigious award,” stated the PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, regarding the distinction granted by the Institute of Mathematical and Computer Sciences (ICMC) of USP.

"It's always time to start over if you have discipline and perseverance."

Felipe, who completed a sandwich doctorate at the same institution and has visited several universities in the United States and Europe, highlighted the structure of IMPA's master's and doctoral programs, as well as the quality of the classes and professors. "It's exceptional and among the best in the world. The Institute's primary motto has always been excellence in all aspects of academic training. I see IMPA as my second home in Brazil," he stated, considering that the events of the Mathematics Biennium, such as the World Congress of Mathematicians in 2018, will bring even more recognition to Brazilian mathematics and to IMPA.

Regarding changes in academic direction – such as the one that led him to switch from Computational Simulations to Fluid Dynamics for Fourier Analysis – Felipe says he enjoys sharing his experience to show that it is indeed possible to start over: “I like to tell this story because I often see colleagues lost at the beginning of their doctorate, not knowing which topic to choose, and I think it's never too late to start from scratch if you have discipline and perseverance.”

Encouraging careers and the dissemination of mathematics.

Supported by the Brazilian Mathematical Society (SBM), the Gutierrez Prize, Felipe observes, “is extremely important” for Mathematics because, in addition to motivating students at the beginning of their careers, it helps to disseminate the subject to society, both in national and international circles.

The researcher after whom the award is named, Peruvian Carlos Teobaldo Gutierrez Vidalon (1944-2008), arrived in Brazil in 1969 to study at IMPA, where he earned his master's and doctoral degrees and worked as a professor until 1999. Afterwards, he served as a full professor at ICMC, contributing to the founding and organization of the research group in Dynamical Systems.

The awards ceremony is scheduled for August 28th at the Fernão Stella de Rodrigues Germano auditorium at ICMC. In addition to Felipe's thesis, the work "Graph Decomposition into Paths," by Fábio Happ Botler from Recife, will receive an honorable mention. He holds undergraduate and master's degrees from the Federal University of Pernambuco, a doctorate from the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics (IME) at USP, supervised by Professor Yoshiko Wakabayashi, and is a professor at the University of Chile.

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