‘CBM is an example of what IMPA does best’, says Marcelo Viana

“The Brazilian Mathematics Colloquium (CBM) is an example of what IMPA does best: growing and expanding the scope of its activities without sacrificing quality,” said IMPA’s director-general, Marcelo Viana, during the opening of the 35th edition of the event. With almost 1500 participants, the 35th CBM began on Monday (28) and runs until Friday (30) at the institute’s headquarters in Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro.

Held since 1957, the meeting brings together researchers, teachers and students from Brazil and around the world – which reaffirms the Colloquium’s vocation for training, dialog and collective construction of the mathematical community.

“Since its creation, the Colloquium has been a gift from IMPA to the Brazilian mathematical community, expressing the institutional commitment to science, training and the future of mathematics in the country,” said IMPA’s deputy director and general coordinator of the event, Jorge Vitório Pereira, welcoming the public that filled IMPA’s auditoriums on the first day of the meeting.

Jorge Vitório also recalled his relationship with the CBM, which began while he was still an undergraduate, when he attended for the first time as a student in 1995. “I still remember the feeling of amazement and enthusiasm when I tried to follow lectures on topics that sounded almost esoteric to me. The Colloquium was decisive in my education,” said the researcher to an audience full of young people.

This year, the Colloquium pays tribute to researcher Jacob Palis, who died in May. One of the leading names in Brazilian mathematics and a world reference in Dynamic Systems, Palis was director-general of IMPA and president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC). According to Viana, under his influence, the Colloquium came to IMPA from Poços de Caldas in the 1980s, which ensured that the event’s international character grew.

A doctoral student at UFG (Federal University of Goiás), Colombian Gerardo Erazo is taking part in the CBM for the first time and says he is happy to have the opportunity to be at the institute. “IMPA is an international benchmark, I’ve known about it since I was in Colombia, and I’ve always wanted to visit. I’m looking forward to learning a lot, as there are many high-level researchers.”

Isabelly Martins, an undergraduate at Uerj (Rio de Janeiro State University), sees the event as an opportunity to get to know different areas. “I’m already really enjoying this experience. It’s an opportunity to see beyond what I see in undergrad and learn how subjects can be presented and complicated,” she said.

For Jorge Vitório, the current edition “reflects the richness, diversity and originality of the Brazilian contribution to mathematics”. “May this week of lectures, courses and meetings continue to fulfill the role that the event has always had: to train, inspire and bring people together,” he concluded.

José Seade holds the first plenary session of the 35th CBM

José Seade, a researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, gave the first plenary session of the 35th CBM on Monday (28). A specialist in the areas of Topology, Singularity Theory and Dynamical Systems, the mathematician began his presentation by talking about the importance of IMPA in his education.

“An essential part of my development as a mathematician is thanks to IMPA and, in particular, to Jacob Palis and Cidinha [Maria Aparecida Soares Ruas]. When I was a recent graduate, Jacob invited me and a group of Mexicans here almost every year. That’s when the Dynamical Systems team from Mexico gained a lot of strength. IMPA’s contribution was fundamental,” said the researcher.

With the theme “Complex Keinian groups: geometry and dynamics”, Seade recalled that Keinian groups are discrete groups of Möbius transformations acting by automorphisms on the Riemann sphere S2 and discussed how to generalize this classical and fundamental concept to higher dimensions.