Viana will assume the Otavio Frias Filho Chair on November 6th.

IMPA's Director-General, Marcelo Viana, will assume the Otavio Frias Filho Chair of Studies in Communication, Democracy and Diversity on November 6th. This chair was created in 2021 by the Institute for Advanced Studies (IEA) at USP, in partnership with Folha de S.Paulo. The event will take place in the newspaper's auditorium in São Paulo at 2 PM.

At the meeting, Viana will also kick off the 2024-2025 lecture series with the theme "How much is mathematics worth to Brazil?". He will address the crucial role of the field in economic development and wealth creation in the country. Until 2025, the director-general of IMPA will be responsible for organizing other lectures for the chair, which this year has the theme "Science, Technology, Innovation and Development".

“The emphasis of this lecture series from the Otavio Frias Filho Chair of Studies in Communication, Democracy and Diversity will be on science as an engine of economic and social development. Initially, in the first lecture I will focus on the role of mathematics, which is transversal to all of this issue,” stated Viana, who will also help organize a book with articles from selected researchers.

The director-general of IMPA succeeds biologist and neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel , associate professor at Vanderbilt University in the United States, and also a columnist for Folha de S.Paulo. With her at the helm, the chair's theme was "Science, Communication and the Future".

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.

Chair

The Otavio Frias Filho Chair of Studies in Communication, Democracy and Diversity was launched in 2021 as part of the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the Folha de São Paulo newspaper and honors the journalist Otavio Frias Filho (1957-2018), who directed the newspaper's editorial staff until his death . The initiative aims to promote research and disseminate knowledge about the role of communication in maintaining and constantly strengthening democracy, including the rights of minorities and against different types of discrimination.