17/10/2022

'The goal is to welcome the future,' says Viana about IMPA's 70th anniversary.

At the IMPA 70th Anniversary Conference, the institute's director-general, Marcelo Viana, honored the history, the achievements, and the great names of mathematicians who built the institution's prestige as a center of excellence in research and a hub for the dissemination of knowledge, but emphasized that eyes are now on the future and the next steps. “The objective of this celebration is much more to salute the goals of the future than the past. Working and studying at IMPA has never been so interesting, and I have no doubt that the best is yet to come,” stated the director-general.

The opening of the IMPA 70th Anniversary Conference, which celebrates the institute's seven decades, was attended by researchers, institute students, visiting mathematicians and authorities, this Monday (17), at 9 am. The conference program, which runs until Friday, includes 17 lectures, with big names in world mathematics, including three Fields Medal winners (Artur Avila, Frenchman Hugo Dominil-Copin and Russian Stanislav Smirnov), until Friday (21).

Present at the opening session were the executive secretary of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), Sergio Freitas de Almeida; the secretary of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education (MEC), Mauro Luiz Rabelo; the president of Finep, Waldemar Barroso Magno; the president of the Brazilian Mathematical Society (SBM), Paolo Piccione; the president of Faperj, Jerson Lima, as well as Marcelo Viana and the deputy director of IMPA, Cláudio Landim.

The executive secretary of the MCTI (Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation) emphasized the importance of the institute's research activities in the Brazilian context, in addition to mentioning the construction of the new campus. “ IMPA is celebrating its 70th anniversary, but it has a long road ahead, especially with the new structure that will be created right next door [the new campus]. We are rooting for IMPA and for all of you who work here. Know that the MCTI supports all initiatives carried out by IMPA because it considers them fundamental for the whole of Brazil,” said Almeida.

Also attending the event were the director of the National Institute of Technology, Iêda Caminha; the director-president of the Center for Management and Strategic Studies, Fernando Cosme Rizzo Assunção; the deputy director of the National Observatory, Fernando Virgilio Roig; the director of Scientific and Technological Development at Finep, Marcelo Bortolini; the coordinator of the Training Center of the National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology, Luiz Rust; the coordinator of Theoretical Physics at the Brazilian Center for Physics Research, Nami Fux Svaiter; and Antônio André Novotny, from the National Laboratory for Scientific Computing.

Ulrike Tillmann presented the first lecture of the conference.

Ulrike Tillmann falou sobre topologia algébrica

Following the opening, Ulrike Tillmann, a researcher at the University of Oxford and director of the Isaac Newton Institute in the United Kingdom, presented the first lecture of the event. The topic was algebraic topology, a specialty area of German mathematics. Entitled "A Renaissance for the Algebraic Topology of Manifolds," the discussion addressed recent advances in the understanding of manifolds, the object of study in mathematics, based on new works that answer questions left open for almost half a century.

“It’s incredible to be here. I came to Brazil during the ICM [International Congress of Mathematicians] in 2018, but I couldn’t visit IMPA. It’s great to be in this place, which is a fantastic space for doing mathematics. I feel honored to be part of this celebration! I wish the institute all the best and hope that, in the future, the entire Brazilian mathematical community can benefit from IMPA,” commented the researcher.