Chemistry in Today's Brazil

Chemistry in Today's Brazil

align="left">Professor Carlos A. L. Filgueiras (Departamento de Química Inorganica, Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, C.P. 68563, 21945-970 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil; E-mail: calf@iq.ufrj.br), a National Representative for IUPAC's Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry (II.2), prepared this article. It is an English translation, edited slightly for a non-Brazilian audience, of a Portuguese version that appeared in the January/February issue of Química Nova. We thank Professor Carol H. Collins (Instituto de Química, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, C.P. 6154, 13803-970 Campinas, SP, Brazil), Executive Secretary of the Brazilian Chemistry Committee (BCC), which represents Brazil in IUPAC, for helping to facilitate publication of this contribution.

Summary

Chemistry in Colonial Brazil

Beginnings of Modern Chemistry in Brazil

Postwar Development of Chemistry in Brazil

Growth of Research and Graduate Programs

Chemical Industry in Today's Brazil

Educational and Research Assessments

Role of Brazilian Scientific Societies

Chemistry in Brazil's Latin American Neighbors

Overcoming Obstacles to Chemistry in Today's Brazil

Future of Chemistry in Brazil

Summary

This article surveys the birth and development of the chemical community in Brazil over the last 50 years. Chemistry in Brazil has had its ups and downs over the years. The institutionalization of chemistry took considerable time and still is irregular, depending in part upon the whims of the government at any given time. Starting from humble beginnings, a vigorous chemistry community developed and rapidly expanded the scope of its activities across the country. Many problems remain unsolved, however, and to these have now been added dismal government policies that threaten to negate many of the accomplishments achieved thus far. Brazilian chemistry is at the threshold of a new age that will differ greatly from the previous half-century.

Chemistry in Colonial Brazil

Teaching of chemistry on a regular basis, as well as some rudimentary research, began in the first years of the 19^th century, under the auspices of the Portuguese King John VI, who lived in Rio de Janeiro from 1808 to 1821. These activities were, however, very limited in scope. The situation did not change appreciably during the remainder of the 19^th century, with chemistry regarded solely as an ancillary discipline in the study of other specialties, such as engineering, medicine, or pharmacy.

Beginnings of Modern Chemistry in Brazil

Curricula granting university degrees in chemistry were created only during the first decades of the 20^th century. Their aim was to teach the state of the art, in order to prepare professionals capable of supervising important analytical or synthetic processes, transformations,

and control operations in the country's nascent industry. Original contributions to the chemical sciences, experimental or theoretical, were almost nonexistent. An important exception was the systematic research undertaken at the University of São Paulo (USP) in the 1930s, led by chemists who had emigrated from Germany. Nevertheless, this situation was unique; despite the pioneering work led by those initial USP researchers and their first Brazilian collaborators, the country as a whole remained impervious to the idea of scientific research as a means to promote progress. There was hardly any awareness of this need, because of the scientific ignorance of the population, especially the elite.

Discontinuity in policies, programs, institutions, and scientific activities was another important factor that slowed the development of modern science in Brazil. The following pattern recurred often: from time to time, a brilliant scientist or a group of scientists excelled in some important work, gathering a following of disciples and often founding an institution or school of thought. Their achievements were recognized, sometimes widely, but after a certain time, support for their work decreased and could even be discontinued. It was as if Brazilian society liked the ephemeral glitter of scientific achievement and considered it as some sort of cake frosting or a social ornament, not something essential to the life and the progress of that same society.

Postwar Development of Chemistry in Brazil

It was necessary to wait until the awareness of the need to develop science grew stronger before concrete actions could be undertaken. The period immediately after World War II witnessed this ripening process, as a result of the evidence, shown in the military field, of what science and technology can achieve. The enormity of the gap between Brazil and many other allies in the war was shocking to many. The lack of any national program or agency dealing with scientific development pointed to an inexorable economic, social, and intellectual regression if nothing were done. Thus, in 1951 the agencies of the National Research Council, now the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), and the Coordination for Training of University Professors (CAPES) were created, to fund and direct research, establish graduate programs at the universities, and devise national policies of scientific and educational development.

Several important research centers were also created in that period, such as the Brazilian Center for Physical Research (CBPF) and the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN), which were crucial, in their early history, in discovering and nurturing new scientific talents. Beside these institutions, various nongovernmental organizations made their appearance, of which the most important at the time was the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC), founded in 1948. Together, all those new organizations began to work to change the country's scientific panorama. Progress was slow at first; the goal was very ambitious and included creation of a body of scientists; establishment of active research institutions; introduction of continuing scientific research programs at universities; training of high-level scientists in the widest possible number of specialties; and, above all, the beginning of a change in a stubborn, nonscientific national mentality that was centuries old.

In spite of all the obstacles, advancement was considerable and, after two decades, at the beginning of the 1970s, there was clear evidence of progress. Several graduate-level programs were functioning regularly, and the universities, which had undergone thorough restructuring in the late 1960s, proclaimed the need to pursue original research as well as teaching. The university community already took for granted that the creation of new knowledge was one of the pillars upon which the institution must be founded; the transmission of knowledge alone, however important, no longer sufficed.

Growth of Research and Graduate Programs

Research and graduate programs grew at an extraordinary pace in the 1970s and 1980s. There was ample political and financial support for this development, which translated into remarkable quantitative and qualitative growth of science in Brazil, in particular of chemistry.

Among the reasons for the success enjoyed by CNPq, particularly as conductor of the national science and technology policies of the 1970s and 1980s, were strong financial backing and introduction of the peer review system and scientific advisory committees, both drawn from the scientific community. The scientific advisory committee system, started in 1976, had enormous importance in decisions concerning recommendations and resource allocations based on merit, rather than on political influence.

One of the indications of the political importance given to scientific progress was the publication, in 1974, of a Basic Plan for Scientific and Technological Development (PBDCT) as a government priority. This kind of planning was considered to be so crucial that, in 1976, a second plan succeeded the first. Also in 1974, both CNPq and another agency, the Fund for Financing Studies and Research (FINEP), were reformulated, enabling them to function for many years as effective agents to promote the goals of PBDCT and other programs that followed it.

A diagnosis for all scientific areas at the time was made and published in 1974. The situation was a far cry from what exists today, even taking into account any inaccuracies present in that document. In December 1973, there were only 144 holders of doctorates in chemistry, as well as 118 students pursuing doctorates in chemistry. To give an idea of how things have changed, in 1997, Brazilian universities awarded 200 doctorates in chemistry, up from 170 in 1996 and 153 in 1995. Currently, 25 university programs grant doctorates in chemistry.

In 1996, there were 80 000 chemistry professionals, of whom 50 000 were technicians and 30 000 were university-trained in chemistry or chemical engineering. Of the university-educated professionals, more than 1 600 had a doctorate and, of these, 90% were employed at universities.

Chemical Industry in Today's Brazil

Today Brazil is ranked among the top ten countries in the world, with respect to the size of its chemical industry; this industry is of paramount importance in creating jobs, internal wealth, and profits from exports. This condition would not have occurred without the large increase in chemical education and training programs at all levels, as well as augmentation of related areas, such as metallurgy or mining, in which chemistry plays a major role. In this manner, teaching institutions responded to the challenges posed to them. However, most of the Brazilian chemical industry is concerned mainly with producing relatively less elaborate goods, such as petrochemicals, monomers, polymers, etc., in large quantities. The specialty chemicals industry, which makes lesser amounts of value-added products, is still quite modest. Development of specialty chemicals will require, in addition to capital and political will, a large number of high-level scientists in order to succeed.

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Chemistry in Today's Brazil

Professor Carlos A. L. Filgueiras (Departamento de Química Inorganica, Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, C.P. 68563, 21945-970 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil; E-mail: calf@iq.ufrj.br), a National Representative for IUPAC's Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry (II.2), prepared this article. It is an English translation, edited slightly for a non-Brazilian audience, of a Portuguese version that appeared in the January/February issue of Química Nova. We thank Professor Carol H. Collins (Instituto de Química, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, C.P. 6154, 13803-970 Campinas, SP, Brazil), Executive Secretary of the Brazilian Chemistry Committee (BCC), which represents Brazil in IUPAC, for helping to facilitate publication of this contribution.

Summary

Chemistry in Colonial Brazil

Beginnings of Modern Chemistry in Brazil

Postwar Development of Chemistry in Brazil

Growth of Research and Graduate Programs

Chemical Industry in Today's Brazil

Educational and Research Assessments

Role of Brazilian Scientific Societies

Chemistry in Brazil's Latin American Neighbors

Overcoming Obstacles to Chemistry in Today's Brazil

Future of Chemistry in Brazil

Educational and Research Assessments

CAPES and CNPq launched monitoring and assessment programs in the 1970s to gauge how the activities under their responsibility were faring, with the objective to assess and correct, where necessary, the educational and funding policies.

CAPES, which is the agency in charge of graduate programs in the Education Ministry, was the more successful of the two. Its assessment of graduate education was based from the start on the principle of peer review, i.e., visits by committees of specialists and analysis of all aspects concerning graduate studies, including physical facilities, libraries, equipment and supplies, qualifications and performance of teaching staffs and students, etc. This system is still in use and enjoys great credibility in the academic community.

Similar assessments of research projects by CNPq were not as successful, even though they were based on the same peer review principle used by CAPES. The quality, appropriateness, and impact of research efforts are particularly difficult to assess. Perhaps more important, there was a relative unwillingness to formulate and demand clear research guidelines on the part of university departments and research institutes. Research assessment remains an important, albeit difficult, problem that will soon have to be solved adequately, in view of the mounting complexities of funding and carrying out research nowadays.

Role of Brazilian Scientific Societies

It is important to note the extraordinary role played by the scientific societies. The Brazilian Chemical Society (SBQ), founded in 1977, has become the country's largest scientific organization, with some 4 000 paying members and a very strong presence in Brazil. SBQ's most important activities are the several regular conferences it organizes and its four publications. Conferences held by SBQ include the large annual meeting, held during the last week of May, with an average attendance of 2 000 people from the whole country and several foreign countries; thematic conferences (inorganic chemistry, organic syntheses, NMR, electrochemistry, etc.); and regional meetings, held in distinct places throughout the country. SBQ publications include the Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society (in English), Química Nova (in Portuguese and English), Química Nova na Escola (in Portuguese), and the Boletim da SBQ (in Portuguese). The Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society (JBCS) is a research-only journal; Química Nova (QN) publishes research together with technical notes, chemical education material, history of chemistry, etc; Química Nova na Escola (QN na Escola) is a journal for high school teachers of chemistry; finally, the Boletim, which appears electronically, conveys information about the Society, the chemical profession, political and social implications of science, etc. JBCS and QN are indexed in Chemical Abstracts. QN and the Boletim are sent to all members of the society, whereas the other two publications are sold by subscription.

Other scientific societies that deal with chemistry and related topics include the Brazilian Association for Chemistry (ABQ), the Brazilian Association for Chemical Engineering (ABEQ), the Brazilian Association for Polymer Science (ABPol), and the Brazilian Association for the Chemical Industry (ABQuim). Each of these associations has an annual meeting and publishes either a bulletin or a journal, or both, in Portuguese. Together with the SBQ, these associations make up the Brazilian Chemistry Committee (BCC), which represents Brazil in IUPAC.

Chemistry in Brazil's Latin American Neighbors

Another way to look at what has happened in Brazil in these recent decades is to compare how science was introduced and developed in Brazil's Latin American neighbors. Brazil entered the 19^th century in a state of absolute inferiority. Several countries on the continent possessed venerable and distinguished universities, some dating from the first century of Spanish colonization. Mexico, for instance, pursued chemistry vigorously in the 18^th century, and the Mexican discovery of vanadium is an important contribution of that early period. Brazil, on the contrary, had scant scientific tradition and, during the colonial period, was never allowed by Portugal to have either universities or printing presses. This situation only began to improve after 1808, with the arrival of the Portuguese court in Rio de Janeiro. Although several schools of higher education in medicine, law, and engineering were founded and prospered during the 19^th century, they did not begin to merge into true universities until 1920. This historical perspective helps one to appreciate the immense obstacles that had to be overcome to catalyze the process that began after 1945.

Overcoming Obstacles to Chemistry in Today's Brazil

Of course, several problems persisted and, in recent times, many others have surfaced. There are currently no bold directives or plans for continuing the developments of the previous decades. Past plans had merits as well as flaws, and were liable to criticism; however, these plans were backed by a national will to pursue science and technology and to further the well being of the nation. Many concrete actions were put into practice and led to significant growth, both on a quantitative and on a qualitative basis. Today what is needed is to go further, with the necessary corrections demanded by new times and situations. However, there is an almost total vacuum of firm policies or actions regarding the support of science. CNPq no longer functions as a leader of national science policy.

The lack of continuing and steady support has been almost constant in the present decade, particularly in the last few years. The traditional federal funding sources for science have shrunk, and the resources available to researchers are not sufficient enough to maintain current projects, let alone to provide for the growing demand from new researchers. Project evaluation by the agencies tends more and more to become a game of musical chairs, with a minute number of seats and a large standing crowd. The shrinking of the federal funding agencies took place without their replacement by any other funding scheme of similar magnitude. Several of the Brazilian states have their own agencies for funding research, but with the exception of the Foundation for Research Support of the State of São Paulo (Fapesp), they do not have the resources to cope with the demand in their respective states. If the present situation persists much longer, science establishments may become obsolete throughout Brazil, except in São Paulo. This setback would increase the asymmetry already present in the country to the point of being extremely harmful to the very nature of the federation of Brazilian states. The constant chorus of scientists, educators, scientific societies, universities, and research institutes denouncing the present state of things and urging change has only met with deaf ears within the present national and state government administrations. The danger inherent in this asymmetry might affect the state of São Paulo, which will be under intense pressure from at least part of the science community in the rest of the country, leading to an uneasy situation.

The catchword to justify the present state of things is "market". It seems that nothing can be done in the country if it is not geared to the immediate needs of the market. In the educational and scientific fields, this shortsightedness can lead to an irreparable disaster. For example, universities are institutions that must be at the forefront of society; in addition to performing services strictly tuned to the market, such as the education of future professionals, they must also perform a number of other functions. Good universities must go beyond their time or contingencies; not only must they transmit knowledge in an efficient manner and prepare professionals of the highest quality, but they must create new knowledge by means of original research. If universities do not maintain their leadership in society, they will become moribund. It would not have been possible for educational institutions in Brazil to produce the enormous specialized labor force at work today in the chemical industry without the extraordinary support given to science activities in the past.

From the point of view of professional education alone, the alliance between teaching and research is meaningful. Without ongoing research activities, both teachers and students will lack the exposure to the critical decision-making process that one faces so often during the course of any research project, depending on what happens in the laboratory. Performing only previously tested experiments, for example, introduces a sense of certaintyalmost of dogmainto the subject, which completely reverses the nature of science. It is the research component that sets the correct path, showing how treacherous experimental work can be and how alert and resourceful the experimentalist must be in order to interpret what is taking place. Exposure to this decision-making process is invaluable to any future professional, regardless of what field he or she will be engaged in.

If the universities were limited to satisfying market needs only, many other important human activities would also disappear from their concern. Culture in general, and the humanities and arts in particular, would suffer most. Is this really the kind of university we want? Might this not reduce us to a brutish and greedy tribe, intent only on making money for its own sake?

Until a few years ago, Brazil enjoyed a very enviable situation by offering scholarships over a wide spectrum, from undergraduate research to postdoctoral fellowships. Of course, this scholarship support was essential to achieve the results outlined above. The number of scholarships has shrunk considerably, and there is widespread concern that it will shrink even more. This contraction of support has significantly affected all graduate programs as well as the "scientific initiation" programs for undergraduates. Salaries in scientific establishments are no longer as attractive as in the past, and it is feared that all these changes will have an adverse effect on the number of students willing to pursue scientific careers. As a consequence, the scientific edifice carefully put together over the last decades runs the risk of crumbling. This edifice should be a source of national pride. Those who do not see it this way, and who pretend to be up-to-date, ignore the fact that in the modern world the most precious good is knowledge. The destruction, or even worse, the demoralization of the science and technology system is relatively easy to bring about, if the present tendencies are not reversed. Much more difficult will be the restoration of the building, if this course of action persists for much longer.

Future of Chemistry in Brazil

As scientists and academicians, we are at a crossroads of enormous complexity. Gone is the age of innocence, of certainties, or of transparent policies. Instead, we are faced with multiple challenges. What can be done? To start with, we must acknowledge the multiple nature of problems and agree that solutions can and must be pursued. Secondly, solutions will be laborious and costly, and can only be achieved through great effort, unity, and tenacity from the scientific community. We need a confident, unified approach toward a common goal, political in nature, in order to reverse, even if only gradually, the present government policies that are choking Brazilian science. If these policies are not changed, they will lead the country dangerously backwards.

Unity of purpose is also essential at all levels of chemistry teaching, as well as within the industrial sector and in any activity linked directly or indirectly with chemistry. This unanimity must be understood as no mere political strategy but as a true ideology in action, expressing the belief I think all chemists share, that the cultivation and advancement of chemistry are essential for the progress and well being of the country. This undertaking is indeed difficult in the present climate, in which the nation's ruling circles tend to consider advanced quality education and scientific research as luxuries that can be postponed. The preference now is to import everything, rather than to encourage domestic development. We thus face an inversion in the direction of history, by which the nation might be led to a situation reminiscent of that which prevailed before the last half-century.

In addition to immense academic and political effort, there is more to be done. We need to encourage, as individuals and institutions, together with the scientific societies, the popularization of science and the education of the lay population. Without widespread public backing, this inversion process might take much longer. We would do well to remember that, until a few decades ago, awareness that cultivation of science is a

necessity was far from unanimous, even in university circles. Moreover, to bring science to the public in general is a relevant task that we cannot shun, as members of a minority who had access to science education at all levels. The goal of this effort is not to find future scientists, but rather to disseminate science among common citizens and to make them scientifically literate. The discovery of scientific talents will be a possible consequence of this action, not its motivation. Insofar as chemistry is the central science, chemists are also at the center of this responsibility. If we criticize those who deny us support for our research, we cannot be omissive in this regard.

Reaching out to the general public, if well conducted, can result in great benefit for the scientific community, too. If we can persuade the general population to accept the idea that science is not only good but indispensable, that it is a manifestation of national pride to have a great number of scientists and institutions doing research, the social status of our activity, as well as our own status, will tend to rise, and we will have more influence on political decisions. In sum, the change in mentality that took place in the universities 30 years ago must now be extended to the rest of the nation.

Acknowledgment

The author gratefully acknowledges the suggestions made by Professor Carol H. Collins of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas during the preparation of this article.