LAUSR

should anyone have told us that in less than three decades a young Brazilian raised and educated in the country would win the Fields Medal, we would all have smiled in utter disbelief. Except, perhaps, for then seven-year-old Artur Avila himself. Because the fact is that mathematics, and science in general, in Brazil is a very young idea. Brazilians love to blame it on the kings of Portugal. The conventional story goes that a jealous colonial power, eager to prevent the development and spread of “subversive ideas,” forbade the printing and circulation of journals and newspapers, thus hampering the development of a knowledgeable society. A more nuanced truth is that many such policies remained in place after independence under the two emperors and, to a lesser extent, even after the republic had replaced the monarchy. As a result, most scientific institutions were created rather late. Besides, not surprisingly, the earlier ones were concerned with such issues as tropical diseases, sanitation, and public health. Mathematics was not a priority at that stage. The first person to go on record as a mathematical researcher was Joaquim Gomes de Souza, born in 1829 in the northeastern state of Maranhão. After getting a degree from the Military School in Rio de Janeiro, the only institution in the country offering higher education in mathematics, Souza traveled to Paris, where he presented his Math in Brazil: Sowing the Seeds