Journalists reveal behind-the-scenes stories of mathematics reporting.

The winning journalists in the “Mathematics” category of the 2021 IMPA Journalism Award met this Friday (17) in a webinar broadcast on IMPA’s YouTube channel to tell the behind-the-scenes stories of their award-winning reports. The judges – the Institute’s Director-General, Marcelo Viana, and journalist Raphael Gomide, IMPA’s communications advisor – led the conversation between Camille Lichotti, from Revista Piauí, Bruno Vaiano, from Revista Superinteressante, and Gabriel Alves, from Folha de S.Paulo.

During the webinar, the director-general of IMPA stated that mathematics was pushed to the center of the debate with the pandemic. “Never in recent years has mathematics been discussed so much. We know why. The tool we had to understand the evolution of the pandemic was, above all, mathematics. The models helped us to make predictions, which were not always satisfactory,” he commented.

First place winner in the “Mathematics” category, Camille Lichotti recounted the path that led her to write the award-winning report “ Covid-19 Open-Air Market /Patient Zero .” In the text, the journalist from Revista Piauí explains a model developed by mathematicians and physicists in Brazil to track the transmission of Covid-19 in a typically Brazilian environment, the open-air market, and describes how the technique was used to portray the epidemic in a city in Alagoas. The objective of the study that the reporter followed was to understand the role of the market in the spread of the disease, at a time when it was still little known.

“The interesting thing about the article is that it shows there’s an intelligent way to think about these measures, to know what’s most effective in terms of public policy to contain the disease. To use science and these tools to solve the problems that are being presented. It’s an example of the power of Brazilian science,” said the winner, who revealed during the conversation that, having completed two years of her undergraduate studies in engineering, she gained more familiarity with the field. “I was already a little used to these things with numbers, and putting together spreadsheets,” she joked.

In “ The Many Faces of Infinity ,” a report by Superinteressante magazine that secured second place in its category, reporter Bruno Vaiano detailed the discovery of Georg Cantor, the mathematician who developed the concept of transfinite numbers, proving that some infinities are larger than others. “The goal was to explain the discovery of the concept of transfinite numbers. I wanted to present Cantor as an anti-hero in the history of knowledge at the end of the 19th century. We know that science communication is also done through this construction of certain characters. I wanted people to know who he was and to reflect on infinity,” Vaiano explained.

To demystify mathematics for children, journalist Gabriel Alves took on the challenge of discussing probability in the article " Mathematics allows us to know something even when everything is uncertain, " published in Folhinha, a supplement of the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper aimed at children. The report won third place in the IMPA Prize in the mathematics category and featured an interview with the Institute's researcher, Roberto Imbuzeiro.

“My intersection with reality was Roberto Imbuzeiro's trajectory and research. Largely based on his experience, I was able to bring these examples. How to calculate the chance of winning the lottery, how to know if an electoral poll can reasonably reflect reality. And his research, which is super interesting: how to understand and map what's behind a social network,” said the reporter.

At the end of the broadcast, Raphael Gomide thanked the participants and congratulated them on their work. "It's a pleasure to have you three as great examples of journalism that is generally well done, with dedication, commitment, and depth in your reporting."

In addition to the winners, the IMPA Prize awarded honorable mentions in the mathematics category to the reports “ Medicine 4.0 ”, from the program Sinais Vitais, on CNN Brasil; “ Vaccination itself will not be able to contain Delta ”, by journalist Giuliana de Toledo, published in the newspaper O Globo; and “ Mathematics in everyday life ”, from TV Brasil and made by a team formed by journalists Renato Fanti de Araujo Pereira Cavalcanti, Vitor Chambon, Priscila Cestari, Leandro Viana and Ana Elisa Santana.

Launched in 2018 to bring mathematics closer to society and expand scientific dissemination in Brazil, the 2021 IMPA Journalism Prize aims to value the work of the press and encourage the production of reports on mathematics, science, and technology. The selection recognizes reports that address these topics in an interesting and original way, provoke reflection on these areas of knowledge, and stimulate their popularization in the country.

The webinar featuring the winners of the "Mathematics" category is available in its entirety on IMPA's YouTube channel, as is the one for the " Science Communication " category.