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Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
Jacob Palis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 15 March 1940 |
| Died | 7 May 2025 (aged 85) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Education | University of California, Berkeley Federal University of Rio de Janeiro |
| Known for | Dynamical systems Chaos theory Palis' conjectures[1][2][3][4] |
| Awards | Premio México de Ciencia y Tecnología (2000) Balzan Prize (2010) Abdus Salam Medal (2015) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Workplaces | Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada |
| Stephen Smale | |
Doctoral students | Artur Oscar Lopes Ricardo Mañé Welington de Melo Carlos Gustavo Moreira Enrique Pujals Marcelo Viana |
Jacob Palis Jr. (15 March 1940 – 7 May 2025) was a Brazilian mathematician and academic. Palis's research interests were mainly dynamical systems and differential equations. Some themes are global stability and hyperbolicity, bifurcations, attractors and chaotic systems. He proposed the Palis' conjectures (which form the Palis' program),[5] which influenced the development of the theory of dynamical systems, and also of its applications to other sciences.[6] He was a world leader in chaos theory research.[7] Palis was an influential figure in the development of mathematics in Brazil.[8]
Jacob Palis was born in Uberaba, Minas Gerais. His father was a Lebanese immigrant, and his mother was of Syrian ancestry.[9] The couple had eight children (five men and three women), and Jacob was the youngest. His father was a merchant, owner of a large store, and supported and funded the studies of his children. Palis said that he already enjoyed mathematics in his childhood.[10][11]
At 16, Palis moved to Rio de Janeiro to study engineering at the University of Brazil – now UFRJ. He was approved in first place in the entrance exam, but was not old enough to enroll; he then had to take the university's entry exam again a year later, where he once again finished in first place. He graduated in 1962 with honours and received the award for the best student.[11]
In 1964, he moved to the United States. In 1966, he obtained his master's degree in mathematics under the guidance of Stephen Smale at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1968 his PhD, with the thesis On Morse-Smale Diffeomorphisms, again with Smale as advisor.[12][13]
In 1968, he returned to Brazil and became a researcher at the Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (IMPA) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[12] Beginning in 1973 he held a permanent position as professor at IMPA, where he was director from 1993 until 2003. He was Secretary-General of the Third World Academy of Sciences from 2004 to 2006, and elected its president in 2006[14] and remained on position till December 2012. He was also president of the International Mathematical Union from 1999 to 2002.[15] He was president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences from 2007 to 2016.[16] Palis advised more than forty PhD students so far from more than ten countries, including Artur Oscar Lopes, Ricardo Mañé, Welington de Melo, Carlos Gustavo Moreira, Enrique Pujals and Marcelo Viana.[17]
Palis died at a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, on 7 May 2025, at the age of 85. He had been hospitalized since March.[18]
Palis received numerous medals and decorations. He was a foreign member of several academies of sciences, including the United States National Academy of Sciences, the French Academy of Sciences and German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.[19] In 2005 Palis received the Legion of Honor.
He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.[20] In 2010, he was awarded the Balzan Prize for his fundamental contributions in the mathematical theory of dynamical systems that has been the basis for many applications in various scientific disciplines, such as in the study of oscillations.[21][22] He was also a recipient of the 1988 TWAS Prize.[23]
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Jacob Palis Jr. (15 March 1940 – 7 May 2025) was a Brazilian mathematician and academic. Palis's research interests were mainly dynamical systems and differential equations. Some themes are global stability and hyperbolicity, bifurcations, attractors and chaotic systems. He proposed the Palis' conjectures (which form the Palis' program), which influenced the development of the theory of dynamical systems, and also of its applications to other sciences. He was a world leader in chaos theory research. Palis was an influential figure in the development of mathematics in Brazil.
Palis is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Ella Palis (born 1999), French football player Geoffrey Palis (born 1991), French rugby union player Jacob Palis (1940–2025), Brazilian mathematician
Floris Takens (12 November 1940 – 20 June 2010) was a Dutch mathematician known for contributions to the theory of chaotic dynamical systems. Together with David Ruelle, he predicted that fluid turbulence could develop through a strange attractor, a term they coined, as opposed to the then-prevailing theory of accretion of modes. The prediction was later confirmed by experiment. Takens also established the result now known as the Takens's theorem, which shows how to reconstruct a dynamical system from an observed time-series. He was the first to show how chaotic attractors could be learned by neural networks. Takens was born in Zaandam in the Netherlands. He attended schools in The Hague and in Zaandam before serving in the Dutch army for one year (1960–1961). At the University of Amsterdam, he concluded his undergraduate and graduate studies. He was granted a doctorate in mathematics in 1969 under the supervision of Nicolaas Kuiper for his thesis The minimal number of critical points of a function on a compact manifold and the Lusternik–Schnirelmann category. After his graduate work, Takens spent a year at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, in Bures-sur-Yvette, near Paris, where he worked with David Ruelle, René Thom, and Jacob Palis. His friendship with Palis took him many times to the Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (IMPA) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Their collaboration produced several joint publications. Takens was a professor at the University of Groningen, in Groningen, the Netherlands, from 1972 until he retired from teaching in 1999. Takens was a member of: The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 1991) The Brazilian Academy of Sciences (since 1981), and The editorial board for the Springer-Verlag's Lecture Notes in Mathematics.
This is a list of Brazilian scientists, those born in Brazil or who have established citizenship or residency there. Manuel de Abreu (1894–1962), physician, inventor of abreugraphy (mass radiography of the lungs for screening tuberculosis) Aziz Ab'Saber (1924–2012), geographer; geologist; ecologist recognized for the Theory of Refuges and Amazon studies; former president of the SBPC Fernando Flávio Marques de Almeida (1916–2013), geologist Carlos Paz de Araújo, scientist and inventor, holds nearly 600 patents in the area of nanotechnology José Márcio Ayres (1954–2003), biologist, zoologist, primatologist Marcia Barbosa (born 1960), physicist Abrahão de Moraes (1916–1970), astronomer and mathematician Eddy Bensoussan (born 1938), physician Wilson Teixeira Beraldo (1917–1998), co-discoverer of bradykinin Thaisa Storchi Bergmann (born 1955), astrophysicist at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul Carlos Augusto Bertulani (born 1955), physicist Vital Brazil (1865–1950), physician and scientist, discoverer of the antivenom for snakes and other venomous animals Ennio Candotti (1942–2023), physicist and scientific leader Fernando Henrique Cardoso (born 1931), sociologist and former President José Cândido de Melo Carvalho (1914–1994), biologist, zoologist, entomologist Guilherme "Bill" Cardoso, Brazilian-American entrepreneur, engineer, and scientist. Carlos Chagas (1879–1934), biologist, zoologist, public health worker Evandro Chagas (1905–1940), physician and biomedical scientist specialized in tropical medicine; son of Carlos Chagas Gauss Moutinho Cordeiro (born 1952), mathematician and statistician Vera Cordeiro (born 1950), social entrepreneur and physician Newton da Costa (1929–2024), mathematician and logician, recognised for his works in paraconsistent logic Oswaldo Cruz (1872–1917), physician and public health champion, eliminated yellow fever, bubonic plague and smallpox in Rio de Janeiro at the turn of the 20th century Johanna Döbereiner (1924–2000), biologist, discoverer of the nitrogen fixing role of soil bacteria Adolpho Ducke (1876–1959), Croatian-Brazilian biologist; zoologist; entomologist; botanist André Rodrigues Durães, Brazilian physician and researcher Florestan Fernandes (1920–1995), father of Brazilian sociology Sérgio Henrique Ferreira (1934–2016), physician and pharmacologist, discovered the active principle of a drug for hypertension Carlos Chagas Filho (1910–2000), physician and physiologist, former president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, former president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences; son of Carlos Chagas Hércules Florence (1804–1879), pioneer of photography Santiago Americano Freire (1908–1997), physician and professor of pharmacology, psychiatrist, writer, painter Gilberto Freyre (1900–1987), historiographer and sociologist Celso Furtado (1920–2004), noted economist and ideologue of economy of developing nations Marcelo Gleiser (born 1959), physicist, writer and professor of physics and astronomy at the Dartmouth College since 1991 José Goldemberg (born 1928), physicist, former Minister of Science & Technology and Dean of the University of São Paulo Émil Göldi (1859–1917), Swiss-Brazilian biologist; zoologist; naturalist Bartolomeu de Gusmão (1685–1724), Brazilian Catholic priest, pioneer of aviation, the inventor of the balloon, became known as the "flying priest" Jacques Hüber (1867–1914), Swiss-Brazilian biologist; botanist Ivan Izquierdo (1937–2021), physician and neuroscientist; discovered neural mechanisms of memory Jean Paul Jacob (1937–2019), electronic engineer, researcher and professor, research manager at the Almaden IBM Research Center, California Adib Jatene (1929–2014), heart surgeon Alexander Kellner (born 1961), Liechtensteinian/Brazilian paleontologist Warwick Estevam Kerr (1922–2018), geneticist, researcher on the biology and genetics of bees Eduardo Krieger (born 1928), physician and physiologist, former president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences César Lattes (1924–2005), experimental physicist, co-discoverer of the pion, a type of subatomic particle, first president of the Brazilian National Research Council Napoleão Laureano (1914–1951), cancer researcher Aristides Leão (1914–1993), physician and physiologist, discovered Leão's depression, a phenomenon of nervous tissue Ângelo Moreira da Costa Lima (1887–1964), doctor, entomologist Henrique da Rocha Lima (1879–1956), physician, pathologist and infectologist, discovered Rickettsia prowazekii, the pathogen of epidemic typhus José Leite Lopes (1918–2006), theoretical physicist Adolfo Lutz (1855–1940), physician and pioneer of public health José Lutzenberger (1926–2002), ecologist and zoologist Roberto Landell de Moura (1861–1928), pioneer of telephony Fritz Müller (1821–1897), German-Brazilian biologist; zoologist; botanist; naturalist; entomologist Miguel Nicolelis (born 1961), neuroscientist, one of Scientific American's best scientists of 2004 Jacob Palis (1940–2025), mathematician of international fame, president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences Maurício Peixoto (1921–2019), engineer, mathematician, pioneered the studies on structural stability, author of Peixoto's theorem Domingos Soares Ferreira Penna (1818–1888), biologist, zoologist, naturalist José Aristodemo Pinotti (1934–2009), physician and gynecologist, former president of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Marcos Pontes (born 1963), first Brazilian astronaut, Missão Centenário Patricia Pranke (born 1967), stem cell researcher, professor Ana Maria Primavesi (1920–2020), soil scientist and promoter of the ecological management of tropical soils André Rebouças (1838–1898), pioneer engineer, brother of Antônio Rebouças Filho José Reis (1907–2002), biologist, greatest Brazilian science writer Gilberto Righi (1937–1999), biologist, zoologist, specialist on earthworms Carlos Rittl (living), scientist and environmentalist Nora Tausz Rónai (born 1924), holocaust survivor, architect, writer and masters swimmer Milton Santos (1926–2001), geographer, won the Vautrin Lud International Geography Prize, the highest award that can be gained in the field of geography Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873–1932), aviator and inventor Ademar Agostinho Sauthier (1940), theologist Mário Schenberg (1914–1990), theoretical physicist Helmut Sick (1910–1991), German-Brazilian biologist; zoologist; ornithologist Lotar Siewerdt (born 1939), agronomist; forage production Manuel Augusto Pirajá da Silva (1873–1961), responsible for the identification and complete description of the pathogenic agent and the pathophysiological cycle of schistosomiasis disease Maurício Rocha e Silva (1910–1983), physician and pharmacologist, discovered bradykinin, an active cardiovascular peptide Emílio Joaquim da Silva Maia (1808–1859), physician and naturalist Nise da Silveira (1905–1999), psychiatrist and mental health reformer Jorge Stolfi (born 1950), computer scientist, professor at UNICAMP Jayme Tiomno (1920–2011), experimental and theoretical nuclear physicist Paulo Emílio Vanzolini (1924–2013), biologist, zoologist, herpetologist Glaci Zancan (1935–2007), biochemist Mayana Zatz (born 1947), biologist and geneticist Euryclides Zerbini (1912–1993), heart surgeon, pioneer of first heart transplant in Brazil
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
