Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (IMPA)

The Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (IMPA) was the first research unit to be established by the Brazilian National Research Council - CNPq, presently the Brazilian Council for the Development of Science and Technology, just one year after CNPq itself was founded in 1951, becoming the foremost agency to promote and support research in Brazil. IMPA has since maintained a national profile, aimed at: - promoting high level scientific research in Mathematics and aplications; - training new researchers; - promoting the diffusion of mathematical culture and knowledge at a frontier line; - developing projects of improvement of mathematical teaching at all levels. These closely linked activities favor the advancement of mathematical knowledge, basic to the development of the sciences and of technology as a whole, which in itself is essential to the economic and social progress of the Nation. Initially, IMPA initiated its activities in the premises of the Brazilian Physics Research Center (CBPF), at Praia Vermelha, Rio de Janeiro. Aside from Lélio Gama, the director, there were Leopoldo Nachbin and Maurício Peixoto as members of the research staff, a small but illustrious group.