18/03/2021

'Mathematics is an inexhaustible gold mine,' says Marcelo Viana.

In a live broadcast on the Valor Econômico newspaper , this Thursday (18), the general director of IMPA, Marcelo Viana, described mathematics as “an inexhaustible gold mine”, if considered as a tool for economic development. In more developed countries, such as the United Kingdom, professions with a high mathematical content represent 15% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), he highlighted in the broadcast. The conversation was with journalist Gabriel Vasconcelos, from Valor's Rio branch, and dealt with the area's contributions to the private sector and also the teaching of the discipline in Brazil.

The researcher pointed to the difficulty of dialogue between academia and the business sector as one of the main barriers to the evolution of applied mathematics in the country. “It’s the most difficult part of the process: understanding what we can offer and what the other side needs. We are not used to this dialogue. We need to learn how to do it and understand that a company's timeline is not the same as academia's timeline. Theorems last forever, but their applications may have their own timing ,” explained Viana.

Conversely, he stated that companies need to recognize the potential contribution of mathematics to their businesses. "Institutions like IMPA and other research centers are amply equipped to offer the kind of knowledge, expertise, and technology capable of improving processes and results."

With a history of technical partnerships with companies like Petrobras, IMPA has been getting even closer to the industrial sector in recent years. In 2020, the Mathematics and Industry Workshop , held at the institute, brought together academics and industry professionals to discuss concrete problems in the business world. “One of the problems was debated for four months by students and researchers. We arrived at an excellent result, which ended up generating job opportunities in the respective company for the students. It's a win-win situation,” reported Viana.

The shortage of mathematicians in Brazil was also a topic addressed in the live stream. According to data from last year from the Ministry of Education, only two Brazilians out of every 10,000 enroll in higher education courses in the field, highlighted Gabriel Vasconcelos. The numbers indicate that our lack of mathematicians is "dramatic," said the director-general of IMPA.

He believes the roots of this gap lie in student training. “Until now, we haven’t been able to incorporate into basic education the principles and historical process that allowed Brazilian mathematics to develop at the research and postgraduate levels. It seems paradoxical that Brazil is in Group 5 of the International Mathematical Union and yet has this bleak picture at the basic education level.”

The live stream is available in its entirety on Valor Econômico's YouTube channel: