IMPA and the Brazilian Center for Physics Research discuss academic partnership

18/2/2025

The director-general of IMPA, Marcelo Viana, met on Monday (17) with the director of the Brazilian Center for Physics Research (CBPF), Márcio Portes de Albuquerque, at IMPA Tech, in the port area of Rio de Janeiro. The meeting discussed the possibilities for academic partnerships between the research institutions and bringing IMPA’s undergraduate program closer to the work of the CBPF. Asla Sá, IMPA Tech’s academic manager, and members of CBPF’s academic, administrative and legal boards also took part in the meeting.

The idea is for CBPF to be a direct collaborator in the physics emphasis of IMPA’s bachelor’s degree. The cooperation agreement should be signed soon. For Viana, this is the start of a partnership that will foster academic exchange. “I see a lot of potential in the collaboration between our two research institutions, both linked to the MCTI, in building IMPA Tech,” he said.

Márcio Albuquerque highlighted the possibility of new learning and innovation opportunities. “With this collaboration, IMPA Tech students will have access to cutting-edge laboratories and advanced research in Physics. This initiative strengthens academic training and stimulates the development of new technologies,” he said.

At the end of the meeting, Viana presented the IMPA Tech and Porto Maravalley facilities to the visitors. They visited the undergraduate classrooms and laboratories, as well as the innovation hub that houses technology companies and startups.

Get to know CBPF
The Brazilian Center for Physics Research (CBPF) is an institute of international excellence in physics research and postgraduate studies. Founded in 1949 in Rio de Janeiro (RJ), the CBPF carries out theoretical and experimental research in areas such as high energy, astroparticles, nanotechnology, physics applied to biomedicine, quantum information, materials science, magnetism and scientific instrumentation.

One of its founders was physicist César Lattes (1924-2005), who in 1947 played a decisive role in one of the most important scientific discoveries of the last century: the detection of the pi meson (or pion), the particle that holds protons and neutrons together in the nucleus of atoms. For this achievement, Lattes was nominated seven times for the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 2024, alongside agronomist Johanna Döbereiner, Lattes was honored by the 19th OBMEP (Brazilian Public School Math Olympics).

Curiously, IMPA’s relationship with CBPF goes back a long way. When it was created on October 15, 1952, the institute did not yet have its own headquarters. IMPA began operating in two rooms at CBPF’s headquarters in Praia Vermelha. Mathematics was present there through Maurício Peixoto and Leopoldo Nachbin (1922-1993) – they would become IMPA’s first two researchers. The institute would only have its own headquarters five years later, in 1957, in Botafogo.

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