21/08/2024

Viana is the new holder of the Otavio Frias Filho Chair at USP.

The Director-General of IMPA, Marcelo Viana, is the new holder of the Otavio Frias Filho Chair of Studies in Communication, Democracy and Diversity , created in 2021 by the Institute of Advanced Studies (IEA) of USP, in partnership with Folha. The chair was launched as part of the celebrations for Folha 's 100th anniversary and honors the journalist Otavio Frias Filho (1957-2018), who directed the newspaper's newsroom until his death.

Viana will be responsible for organizing lectures for the chair, which will focus on the theme of "Science, Technology, Innovation, and Development." He will also help organize a book with articles by selected researchers.

Speaking to Folha, Viana said he was honored by the invitation. “I saw this as an opportunity to reach a different audience than I usually do,” he told the newspaper. “My idea is to work on the link between research and its practical application, not only in production processes but also in public administration. Inevitably, I will place greater emphasis on mathematics, due to my personal background, but the intention is to work on ways of transferring knowledge,” he concluded. Read the full report here.

Author of the recently released book “Histories of Mathematics – From Counting on Fingers to Artificial Intelligence”, Viana is a winner of the Louis D. Grand Scientific Prize, one of the most prestigious honors in science, which recognized his advances in the field of dynamical systems. The director-general of IMPA is also a columnist for Folha de S.Paulo, a space he uses to demystify mathematics for the general public.

According to Folha de S.Paulo, Professor André Chaves de Melo, academic coordinator of the chair, said that Viana's work in communication was one of the factors that influenced his selection as the new chair holder. "Besides being a great mathematician, he is one of those scientists who perceive science not as something isolated, but as something related to social well-being and the improvement of society, something that needs to be close to the population and make itself understood," Melo stated.

According to Folha's editor-in-chief, Sérgio Dávila, "Marcelo is a brilliant mathematician, a competent and creative manager at IMPA, and a columnist who, in his writing, manages to convey to millions of unfamiliar readers the fascination that drives this ancient discipline."

Viana succeeds biologist and neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel , associate professor at Vanderbilt University in the United States, and also a columnist for the newspaper. With the scientist at the helm, the chair's theme was "Science, Communication and the Future".