Cândido da Silva Dias and the Impa library – 05/30/2023 – Marcelo Viana

Cândido da Silva Dias is one of the pioneers of mathematical research in Brazil. Born in 1913, at the age of 24, he became one of the first bachelors in mathematics from the then newly created Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters (FFCL) of the University of São Paulo (USP). Five years later, he defended the first doctoral thesis in science at FFCL.

His most important scientific work, “Topological vector spaces and their application to analytical functional spaces”, was published in 1950. Related results were obtained simultaneously by mathematicians Alexander Grothendieck (Fields Medal winner in 1966), in France, Gottfried Köthe, in Germany, and José Sebastião e Silva, in Portugal, which clearly shows the relevance of the theme in research at the time.

In 1945, Silva Dias participated in the creation of the São Paulo Society of Mathematics, the forerunner of the Brazilian Society of Mathematics. In the 1960s, he led the creation of the USP Mathematical Research Institute —currently the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics—, of which he was the first director, between 1970 and 1974. Years before, in 1951-1952, he had played a central role in the creation of the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (Impa), in Rio de Janeiro, an institution with which he maintained a close relationship throughout his life.

His son Pedro Leite da Silva Dias, one of the greatest Brazilian specialists in meteorology, recalls that his father always spoke with great affection about Impa and recalls his conversations with his friends Leopoldo Nachbin and Mauricio Peixoto, the institute’s first researchers: “I lived through some of those episodes and I still remember when, as a child, I traveled with my father to Rio de Janeiro. But the best memory is of the conversations he had with Leopoldo and Mauricio in the living room, at home, on Rua Vergueiro. They spent hours and hours chatting. I remember sleeping on the couch listening to the conversation and the laughter they had. Obviously, I didn’t understand anything, but I found it so interesting!”.

Silva Dias would make yet another invaluable contribution to Impa. It so happens that, shortly after the creation of the institute, the CNPq set aside some US$ 2,000 for the acquisition of a specialized library. This money was handed over to Silva Dias, who was leaving for an internship in France and, it is known, understood the subject.

The books he acquired in Europe with these resources made an excellent start in what is currently one of the best mathematics libraries in the world, with around 40,000 books and 60,000 volumes of scientific journals. Incidentally, the growth of the library was one of the reasons why, in 1957, Impa had to move to a larger building, starting a new phase in its history.

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