Interaction between generations marks the 8th School of Dynamical Systems
“It was an event strongly marked by the interaction between young people and senior researchers. This edition was especially important to bring together the new ones, those who are debuting in the area and having contact with high-level researchers,” said Maria José Pacífico, a researcher at UFRJ and member of the Organizing Committee of the 8th Brazilian School of Dynamical Systems.
The meeting began last Monday (3), at UFRJ, and lasted until Friday (8), at IMPA. Of the 152 participants present at the event, 50% were students – a number that demonstrates the strength of the school, which has taken place every two years since 2010.
Unlike other scientific schools focused on the dissemination of consolidated results, the School’s hallmark is the offer of mini-courses on topics highlighted in the area. In this edition, participants followed three mini-courses taught by researchers Aaron Brown (Northwestern University, USA), Balázs Bárány (Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary) and Viveka Erlandson (University of Bristol, UK) who aroused great interest from the public.
The opening of the event, held at the UFRJ Cultural Center, symbolized the collaboration between the main research centers in dynamic systems in Rio de Janeiro such as IMPA, UFRJ, UFF and PUC-Rio. “Choosing UFRJ for the opening was a way to reinforce this integration. Rio has several strong research centers in the area, and the School works as a link between all of them”, highlighted Maria José.
Among the participants, the atmosphere was one of enthusiasm and exchange of experiences. Renata Possobon, a professor at Unicamp, participated for the first time in the School and also in activities at IMPA. “I really enjoyed the event, it had very motivating lectures. My research is more focused on the area of geometry and probability, and so the insights from Dynamics that I was able to absorb here were very important. I see several future applications. I hope that in the next events I can come back and show these applications.”
Douglas Finamore, a postdoctoral researcher at Unicamp, evaluated that the School is also a space for reunions and updating. “I’m from the Dynamical Systems area, so I’m already more inserted in the field. I have participated since I was an undergraduate student. It’s always very good: we meet people again, make new contacts and learn a lot of new things, because Dynamical Systems is a very broad area. It was sensational — I loved the mini-courses and learned a lot of new things.”
Tribute to Jacob Palis
This year’s edition was held in memory of Jacob Palis, former director-general of IMPA and one of the great precursors of research in Dynamical Systems in Brazil. Deceased in May of this year, Palis was honored in two special sessions: the first conducted by Lorenzo J. Díaz (PUC-Rio) and the second by Marcelo Viana, general director of IMPA.
To a packed auditorium, Viana recalled the trajectory of Palis’ contributions to the consolidation of the area, milestones in the mathematician’s trajectory and his strong presence in the development of national science.
“He had a career in the United States ahead of him, and instead he decided to go back to Brazil, which, if you think about it, was really a very strange thing to do. Brazil had very little to offer, at that time, in terms of incentives for a brilliant and young scientist,” Viana said.
The 8th EBSD had the support of CNPq, Faperj, Capes, IMPA and UFRJ, in addition to direct collaborations with researchers and institutions from different regions of the country.