O Instituto de Matemática da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (1964-1974): origem, trajetória e bifurcações

Abstract

This work is the result of research that aimed to investigate the process of founding and institutionalizing the Institute of Mathematics of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (IMUFRN), with an emphasis on the creation, development, expansion and consolidation of the Mathematics Course (Bachelor and Licentiate Degree), between 1964 and 1974. The historiographical research was based on assumptions of research on the history of school institutions, and on the exploration of written documentary sources (minutes, yearbooks, newsletters, invitations to graduations, decrees, ordinances, resolutions, annual and quarterly reports), iconographic sources (photos and images) and oral (testimonies of agents and subjects involved in the process of creating and operating the IMUFRN). The intention was to compose a narrative that crosses the spiral movement that took the origin, trajectory and the bifurcations in the formative process in Mathematics at UFRN, in the investigated period. The results showed that this story was based on two scenarios: the first, related to the importance of the UFRN School of Engineering as the space for the first manifestations on the creation of a university institution focused on the teaching of Mathematics in Rio Grande do Norte (RN), starring and idealized by teaching civil engineers from the Department of Mathematics of the EEUFRN; the second, marked by the presence of the Faculty of Philosophy Sciences and Letters of Natal (FFCL), an institution founded by the Association of Teachers of Rio Grande do Norte (APRN), in 1954, which played a fundamental role in the training of teachers for higher education , Secondary, Professional and Normal, in the State of Rio Grande do Norte. At the end, we indicate the bifurcations of this history in the constitutions of the current departments of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics of the CCET at UFRN.