About

Program History

In 2003, the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), following a joint effort by the professors of the Department of Mathematics—then led by Professor Hilário Alencar—approved the Master's Program in the Graduate Program in Mathematics at the Federal University of Alagoas (PPGMAT/UFAL). This was the first and, so far, the only academic Master's program in Mathematics offered in the state of Alagoas. The PPGMAT/UFAL was officially recognized by Ordinance No. 2,609 of the Ministry of Education, published on August 25, 2004. In April 2008, the program was re-evaluated by CAPES and reaffirmed by Ordinance No. 524 of the Ministry of Education, dated April 29, 2008, and published in the Federal Official Gazette, Section 1, on April 30, 2008.

The creation of the program was partly due to the strong scientific collaboration between the research groups in Differential Geometry and Dynamical Systems at the Institute of Mathematics at UFAL and their counterparts at the National Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA). The proposal addressed a natural demand for the development of qualified professionals in the region and aimed to promote research activities within the Department of Mathematics at UFAL.

The professors involved in the founding of the Program were:

1. Hilário Alencar da Silva – PhD from IMPA, 1988

2. Eduardo Perdigão de Lemos – PhD from UFPE, 1993

3. José Adonai Seixas – PhD from UNICAMP, 1996

4. Ediel Azevedo Guerra – PhD from UFPE, 2000

5. José Carlos Almeida de Lima – PhD from UNICAMP, 2002

6. Krerley Oliveira – PhD from IMPA, 2003

The proposal for the creation of the Program received strong support from the National Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA), through the following researchers:

1. Jacob Palis Jr.

2. Manfredo Perdigão do Carmo

3. Marcelo Viana

4. Fernando Codá Marques

5. Enrique Pujals

6. Marcos Dajczer

In addition, the Alagoas State Research Support Foundation (FAPEAL) strongly supported the initiative by funding the scholarships of the first Master's students and providing infrastructure support for the Program.

As of April 2025, the Graduate Program in Mathematics at UFAL has graduated 108 Master's students, of whom:

1. 61 have completed a PhD

2. 15 are currently pursuing a PhD

3. 64 are faculty members at federal institutions

4. 5 are faculty members at state universities

5. 1 is a faculty member at Princeton University

6. 1 is a researcher at both IMPA and the TecGraf Institute at PUC-Rio

7. 20 are faculty members at UFAL (at the Maceió, Arapiraca, and Sertão campuses)

8. 8 are faculty members of the PPGMAT-UFAL

In 2010, through Ordinance No. 1,045, dated August 19, a joint PhD program was approved between the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL) and the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), which, by April 2025, had awarded 31 doctoral degrees at UFAL. With the consolidation of the joint PhD program and after extensive discussion, it was decided that both UFAL and UFBA had the conditions to independently manage their own PhD programs. Therefore, in 2023, the proposal (APCN) for the standalone PhD program at PPGMAT was submitted and approved, being officially recognized by the Ministry of Education through Ordinance No. 74, dated July 29, 2024, with its launch scheduled for February 2025. Following this approval, in early 2025, CAPES was requested to officially terminate the joint PhD program between UFAL and UFBA.

The recognition of the PhD program, as per Ordinance No. 749, dated July 29, 2024, by the Ministry of Education, led to updates in the Program’s regulations and course catalog, which will take effect in 2025. It is worth highlighting that the Program’s faculty initially included 6 professors from UFAL, in addition to support from the aforementioned IMPA researchers.

The number of permanent faculty members evolved as follows:

• 11 (2012)

• 10 (2013), with 1 visiting professor

• 13 (2014), with 1 visiting professor

• 15 (2015), with 2 visiting professors

• 11 (2016), with 1 visiting professor

• 13 (2017)

• 11 (2018)

• 11 (2019)

• 13 (2020)

• 13 (2021)

• 13 (2022)

• 14 (2023)

• 14 (2024)

Moreover, the Program has invested in strategies to increase its visibility and attract new students. Promotion of the Program and its selection processes is carried out through social media, graduate forums, and emails sent to colleagues abroad. These initiatives aim to more effectively integrate undergraduate and graduate studies, allowing students to progress more rapidly through the Master’s degree and continue on to the PhD.

At the institutional level, resolutions have been approved to support research and to recognize the role of professors involved in graduate-level (stricto sensu) programs. One key regulation at UFAL limits the teaching load of graduate faculty members to 10 hours per week. Furthermore, internal policies of the Institute of Mathematics allow this load to be reduced to 8 hours per week, depending on the professor’s involvement in research, management, and project coordination. This ensures more appropriate dedication to teaching and research activities within the graduate program.