Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada
The Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada is widely considered to be the foremost research and educational institution of Brazil in the area of mathematics. It is located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and was formerly known simply as Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada, hence its official abbreviation.
History
At the time of creation, IMPA did not have its own headquarters: it was temporarily housed in a room in the headquarters of the Brazilian Center for Research in Physics, in Praia Vermelha, south zone of Rio de Janeiro. The scientific body was also diminutive, though illustrious: in addition to the director, astronomer Lélio Gama, who also headed the National Observatory, the institute counted only the young mathematicians Leopoldo Nachbin and Maurício Peixoto.Gama's performance at the helm of IMPA, with his experience and wisdom, played a crucial role in the creation and consolidation of the young institute. And Nachbin and Peixoto would later be the first Brazilians invited to lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians, which is one of the greatest distinctions in a mathematician's career. The academic prestige of IMPA grew from 1957, with the organization of the first Brazilian Colloquium of Mathematics, with about 50 participants. The Colloquium has been taking place every two years since then, in an uninterrupted fashion. Much of Brazilian mathematics was built around it. Also in 1957, IMPA moved to Rua São Clemente, in Botafogo, also in the south of Rio.
In 1962, the master's and doctoral programs began in Mathematics, through an agreement signed with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, which officially awarded the titles of master and doctor. In 1967, IMPA moved again to a historic building on Rua Luiz de Camões, in the center of Rio de Janeiro, which currently houses the Hélio Oiticica Cultural Center. The following year, with support from the National Bank for Economic Development and later from the Financier of Studies and Projects, in addition to CNPq itself, IMPA expanded its work with Brazilian mathematicians in foreign or in phase PhD in the best foreign institutions. Also in 1968, he assumed the Lindolpho de Carvalho Dias direction, which was to lead the consolidation and growth of the institute over 22 years, with special emphasis on the construction of its own headquarters in the neighborhood of Jardim Botânico, inaugurated in 1981.
Research areas
As of 2015, IMPA does research in algebra, analysis, differential geometry, partial differential equations, computer graphics, fluid dynamics, holomorphic dynamics, mathematical economics, symplectic geometry, algebraic geometry, optimization, probability theory, dynamical systems, and ergodic theory. It is aiming to expand its lines of research to include topology, number theory, combinatorics, and discrete mathematics in general and its applications.People associated with IMPA
, a 2014 Fields Medalist, is a researcher at IMPA and received his Ph.D there. Among its researchers also are/were Jacob Palis, Elon Lages Lima, Maurício Peixoto, Manfredo do Carmo, Marcelo Viana, Welington de Melo, Enrique Pujals, Harold Rosenberg, Marcos Dajczer, Carlos Gustavo Moreira, Fernando Codá Marques, César Camacho, Arnaldo Garcia, Alfredo Noel Iusem, Karl-Otto Stöhr, Robert Morris, and Carolina Araujo.| Nº | Director | Period |
| 1 | Lélio Gama | 1952–1966 |
| 2 | Lindolpho de Carvalho Dias | 1966–1969 |
| 3 | Elon Lages Lima | 1969–1971 |
| 4 | Lindolpho de Carvalho Dias | 1971–1978 |
| 5 | Elon Lages Lima | 1978–1979 |
| 6 | Lindolpho de Carvalho Dias | 1979–1989 |
| 7 | Elon Lages Lima | 1989–1993 |
| 8 | Jacob Palis | 1993–2003 |
| 9 | César Camacho | 2003–2015 |
| 10 | Marcelo Viana | 2015-atual |