13/06/2018

The IMPA-Serrapilheira cycle shows that mathematics can be popular.

Villani, Medalha Fields 2010, é um dos palestrantes. Foto: Marie-Lan Nguyen

Mathematics goes far beyond numbers. It's emotion, adventure, development, fun, challenge, art. Discovering its many synonyms becomes easy when we listen to people who have been inspired by it and have become great researchers in the field, as well as masters in the art of showing the world how mathematics matters and affects us in our daily lives. If you want to hear them, schedule yourself for the public lectures of the IMPA-Serrapilheira Cycle, one of the activities of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), in August, in Rio.

Held every four years, the ICM is the moment when researchers from all over the world exchange ideas about the latest advances in the field, a complex body of knowledge that becomes even more valuable when it goes beyond a specialized audience. With this in mind, a program was developed, coordinated by the Director-General of IMPA, Marcelo Viana, in conjunction with the Serrapilheira Institute, created in 2017 to support research and scientific dissemination projects in mathematics, physics, engineering, and computer, earth, and life sciences.

With these outreach lectures, people of all ages and interests will have the opportunity to participate, free of charge, in the most important global event in the field, which has mobilized the mathematical community since 1897. According to the president of Serrapilheira, Hugo Aguilaniu, a clear outreach effort targeting the general public is essential to mathematics.

“Since Brazilian mathematics is of excellence, we believe that, upon reaching this level, it is necessary to consider scientific dissemination as a representation of minorities and to have a policy on these issues,” he observes, for whom the partnership with IMPA is fundamental, because the institution's mission is to support cutting-edge national research.

Aguilaniu hopes that the meetings will show the public other ways of approaching mathematics. “Mathematics is not just counting. It’s an adventure, whose construction comes directly from the human mind. It’s absolutely beautiful,” he says, highlighting the importance of going beyond the classic view of the mathematician as a nerd who only does calculations, and showing that mathematics “is an absolutely central value in the construction of a national identity, like literature.”

Amazing mathematicians

The list of researchers coming to Brazil to participate in the IMPA-Serrapilheira Cycle, from August 2nd to 8th, shows that mathematicians are very diverse and even surprising. Just ask the Frenchman Cédric Villani, from the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris, one of the most prominent international research centers in the field, who also juggles his duties as a member of the French National Assembly. Despite his busy schedule, he continues to captivate audiences with inspiring stories about mathematics. With his distinctive way of dressing, he seems like a character from the 19th century and holds the audience's attention by recounting stories about his work as a researcher, which earned him the Fields Medal in 2010, considered the Nobel Prize of Mathematics.

Belgian, but long established in the United States where she is a professor of Mathematics at Duke University, Ingrid Daubechies also has observations about Mathematics that go beyond common sense and alert the public to the existing connections with other areas of knowledge, such as poetry. The first woman to preside over the International Mathematical Union (IMU), between 2011 and 2014, and a pioneer in the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University, one of the world's leading research centers in the field, she has won numerous awards for her studies on wavelets, a mathematical concept behind countless applications, especially in high-definition transmissions.

A fellow countryman of Villani, Étienne Ghys shares the importance of valuing the dissemination of Mathematics, something he does masterfully. Responsible for the Pure and Applied Mathematics unit at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France), he combines dedication to abstract concepts with the popularization of the field, so much so that he has written and directed animated series to explain the Fourth Dimension and Chaos Theory to children. Not surprisingly, he won an award from the Clay Institute in the United States for his initiatives as a communicator.

Professor Rogério Martins, from the Nova University of Lisbon, appears in the television series "This is Mathematics," promoted by the Portuguese Mathematical Society. He rides his bicycle through the streets, hangs from iron bars like a skilled gymnast, and goes even further, always driven by the intention of showing the general public how mathematics is present in everyday life situations.

The IMPA-Serrapilheira Cycle will also show that mathematics is present in ingenious toys, such as those invented by the Japanese Tadashi Tokieda. A professor at Stanford University (USA), where he studies mathematical physics, he has a rather unusual career path. Before becoming a researcher in the field, he dedicated himself to painting and, later, to philology. He has lived in six countries, discovering and teaching the wonders of mathematics.

Are you curious to hear them? Then register now on the ICM website ( www.icm2018.org ) – you must be at least 14 years old. In this case, you need to submit the authorization for minors, available on the page ( http://www.icm2018.org/portal/visitacao-escolar ). If there is space available at the time of online registration, you can attend two, three, four, or even all the lectures.

Check out the schedule:

Lecture 1: Etienne Ghys (ENS Lyon, France)*

Pavilion 5 of Riocentro, August 2nd | 12:30 – 13:30

Lecture 2: Ingrid Daubechies (Duke University, USA)

Pavilion 3 of Riocentro, August 3rd | 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM

Lecture 3: Cédric Villani (IHP, France)

Pavilion 3 of Riocentro, August 6th | 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM

Lecture 4: Tadashi Tokieda (Stanford University, USA)

Pavilion 3 of Riocentro, August 7th | 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM

Lecture 5: Rogério Martins (Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal)

Pavilion 3 of Riocentro, August 8th | 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM

Lecture 6: to be defined

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