14/08/2018

TV Escola highlights OBMEP medalists and (WM)²

Mathematics brought 13-year-old Maria Rhadija Aguiar to the world's largest math conference, the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2018, held from August 1st to 9th in Rio de Janeiro. A resident of Cocal dos Alves, in Piauí, she traveled over 2,000 kilometers to participate, on the 2nd, in the gold medal award ceremony of the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools (OBMEP) and to stand on the same stage where, the day before, four notable researchers were awarded the Fields Medal, the highest honor among mathematicians.

In a report by TV Escola, Maria Rhadija, among other OBMEP gold medalists, talk about the emotion of receiving the award. Broadcast on the Rede Escola program last Friday (10), the program also features testimonials from the deputy director of IMPA and general coordinator of OBMEP, Claudio Landim; and the Minister of Education, Rossieli Soares.

In addition to OBMEP, journalist Clarissa Vargas went to Riocentro to cover the (WM)² program, the World Meeting for Women in Mathematics. Carolina Araujo, a researcher at IMPA and a member of the event's organizing committee, observed that increasing female representation in the field, besides being important from the point of view of women's freedom of professional choice, is fundamental to science. "We need diversity," she told the reporter, who also spoke with IMPA's director-general, Marcelo Viana.

“Giving up half of humanity in research, in any area of science, is suicide. So, we simply want to promote diversity in the best possible way and restore a certain justice because there is no objective reason for us to have fewer women than men in the exact sciences, as ends up happening in most countries,” declared Viana.

Check out the full program presented last Friday in the video above.