Lindolpho de Carvalho Dias: with IMPA in the palm of his hand.

A plot of land nestled in the Tijuca forest. When he walked across the 30,000 square meter area, already inhabited by monkeys, toucans, parakeets, and countless other species pleasing to the eyes and ears, Lindolpho de Carvalho Dias, from Minas Gerais, didn't hesitate. He had finally found the ideal place to house IMPA (Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics). After frustrating experiences with properties in Botafogo and Gávea, he hurried to close the purchase, but the procedures dragged on to the point of losing part of the area. Not even that made him give up on the deal.

When he recalls the episode, Lindolpho, now 87 years old, gives thanks for his own persistence. "It was a lot of work, but it was worth it."

Anyone familiar with the headquarters of the country's most prominent mathematics research center, in Horto, will agree with him. And understand why number 110 on Estrada Dona Castorina has a narrow entrance, just wide enough for one vehicle to pass at a time. "The land had four parts: three smaller ones at the front; and one larger one at the back. Due to our delay, two of the front parts were sold to other people. But this didn't hinder the project at all," he reveals, days before the Fridaysursdays anniversary of IMPA, created on October 15, 1952.

In a room on the top floor of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) building in Botafogo, where he is a member of the Board of Directors, Lindolpho recounts other stories about the institution he led for 22 years. And, the way he speaks, practically without pauses, it seems as if it were only yesterday that he met Maurício Matos Peixoto and Leopoldo Nachbin at the School of Engineering of what is now the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), which he entered in 1950.

Maurício and Leopoldo led the Mathematics department at the School of Engineering and were part of the Brazilian Center for Physics Research (CBPF), created in 1949. By accepting Maurício's invitation to be a teaching assistant for the Rational Mechanics course, Lindolpho established a relationship that continues to this day and began a journey that would lead him to IMPA. "At that time, there wasn't a consolidated school of Mathematics in the country. Those who liked Mathematics generally studied Engineering," he says.

In addition to his close relationship with Maurício, Leopoldo, and Lélio Gama, a trio that was part of the genesis of IMPA, Lindolpho was a cousin of Cândido Lima da Silva Dias, a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of São Paulo (USP) who drafted the opinion for the creation of the institute, the first research unit of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

Silva Dias, incidentally, is linked to another important moment in IMPA's history, Lindolpho recalls. With his bags packed to spend a period of study in France, he took a grant from CNPq to acquire the first titles for the institute's library collection.

“He was always a book enthusiast. In Paris, he visited bookstores and, especially, second-hand bookstores, where he bought many original collections of essential magazines,” says the man from Minas Gerais, highlighting that it is the largest library of its kind below the Equator.

From intern to director

After graduating in 1954, Lindolpho began taking advanced courses at IMPA, where he became an intern. There was no remuneration, but the position guaranteed access to the library. Within a few years, he was appointed to the Board of Directors and, in 1965, when the then director, Lélio Gama, left the institute to take over the direction of the National Observatory, Lindolpho was appointed to succeed him. He remained in the position until 1989, with two interruptions (1965-69; 1971-79; 1980-89).

“For lack of other people, they put me there,” he says jokingly. During his first leave of absence, in 1969, he spent two years at the University of Texas in the United States. At the time, involved in studies in the area of Differential Equations, he already held a doctorate in Mathematics and was a senior lecturer. Upon returning, he resumed his activities at IMPA and gave impetus to the project for a new headquarters.

He discovered the land in Horto that so enchanted him in a newspaper advertisement. He lived in the neighborhood and immediately went to see the area. He didn't rest until he managed to finalize the negotiation, because he felt it was essential to find a permanent location for the researchers, who were already at their third address. After the three rooms inside the CBPF, in Praia Vermelha, they moved to Botafogo in 1957, and then to the more central region of the city, near Praça Tiradentes.

With the deal closed, construction of the current headquarters began in 1978. And, although the architectural project was signed by Wit-Olaf Prochnik, part of it, according to Lindolpho, came from the minds of the group that originated IMPA.

“We knew exactly what we wanted because we had thought about it a lot. We asked for three auditoriums and a large library, with the professors' offices on the upper floors and circulation areas on the lower floors. All this so as not to disturb those who are studying,” he recalls. The move took place in 1981. The building was not yet finished, but minimally habitable.

Quality and flexibility

When asked about IMPA's greatest strengths, Lindolpho cites the quality of the work done by the institution and its flexibility. Limiting bureaucratic rules, he says, could have prevented the institution from attracting brilliant students, such as the Uruguayan Ricardo Mañe (1948-1995), the mathematician who skipped from basic education to a doctorate at IMPA.

When he first directed IMPA, Lindolpho also served as director of the Mathematics Department at CNPq from 1964 to 1968. Upon returning from the University of Texas, he dedicated himself exclusively to academic administration. When he left IMPA in 1989, he became Secretary General of the Ministry of Science and Technology, president of CNPq (1993 and 1995), and returned to the Ministry of Science and Technology as executive secretary.

He is retired, but, he emphasizes, only from a technical standpoint. Besides his activities at FGV, he is a member of the Executive Committee of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC). He frequently walks in the Botanical Garden. Since his three children live outside Rio, he alleviates his longing for them by using technology. “They come here a lot; sometimes we go there. But today communication is very good. With FaceTime, for example, we see the person's image instantly, we talk. It's very good,” says Lindolpho, keeping up with technological advancements.

He and Marília, from Rio Grande do Sul – “who came to visit Rio and had the misfortune of meeting me” – have two daughters and a son, as well as seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. The eldest is a veterinarian and lives in Goiás; the middle one has a doctorate in neurobiology and resides in New York, in the United States; and the youngest, an agronomist, moved to Canada. None of them worked in the exact sciences. But the name Carvalho Dias is already part of the history of Brazilian mathematics.