It has been 40 years since Impa (Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics) moved into its first headquarters in Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro. The new building enabled the institute to expand and deepen its research and teaching activities. This made it one of the largest centers of mathematics in the world and culminated in the Fields Medal, the largest award in the region, won by researcher Artur Avila in 2014.
During this period, the number of students educated each year has tripled and the scientific panel has grown with research groups in areas such as algebra, optimization, probability, fluid dynamics (for the oil industry), and vision and computer graphics with applications in cutting-edge multimedia.
At the same time, the headquarters gave Impa the opportunity to expand its contribution to Brazilian society in the education and dissemination of mathematics, with an emphasis on teacher training, the creation of the mathematics portal and the Brazilian Public Schools Mathematics Olympiad (Obmep), the 20 million Bringing students together. These initiatives offer broad and free access to knowledge and fulfill an important role of inclusion.
Four decades later, Impa starts building a new campus on the property next to the current headquarters, which was acquired in 2014 through private donations. The facilities will have an infrastructure comparable to that of the best centers in the world and make it possible to increase Impa’s social contribution.
In this new phase, the Institute will develop technological partnerships with Brazilian companies to solve specific problems in the productive sector and strengthen its presence in education through the training of students and teachers, scientific popularization and the universalization of Obmep.
Innovatively, the new campus project won the most important international competition for sustainability in architecture, the 2017 recognition award from the Lafarge Holcim Foundation, Switzerland, for integration into nature and reducing the impact on forests and the urban environment. Erected in an area that was cleared for the exploitation of a quarry decades ago, it will enable the orderly reforestation of the land with species from the Atlantic forest and its sustainable conservation. The new campus has everything to become a postcard and another reason to be proud of Rio and Brazil.
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