User:Valeria.depaiva/Maria Laura Moura Mouzinho Leite Lopes

Maria Laura Mouzinho Leite Lopes (Timbaúba, October 18, 1917 - Rio de Janeiro, June 20, 2013) was a Brazilian mathematician, the first doctor in Brazilian mathematics, specialized in Mathematics Education.

Well-known mathematician, she fought the military dictatorship and articulated the creation of research institutions. She was part of the group that originated the foundation of the Brazilian Center for Physical Research (CBPF), an institute that she created together with José Leite Lopes and César Lattes in 1949. In addition, she participated in articulations to found other important institutions, such as the National Development Council Scientific and Technological (CNPq), the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA) and the Brazilian Society of Mathematical Education (SBEM)

Life
Maria Laura was born in the forest area of ​​the state of Pernambuco, on January 18, 1917. Daughter of Laura Moura Mouzinho and Oscar Mouzinho, a self-taught businessman. Her parents encouraged the training of their children and Maria Laura started her school life at the João Barbalho School Group, in Recife, having completed it in 1931.

Career
She entered the Escola Normal de Pernambuco in 1932, studying there until 1934. There she was a student of professor Luiz de Barros Freire (1986-1963), who according to Maria Laura was responsible for her interest in Mathematics. In 1935, the family moved to Rio de Janeiro, where she enrolled at the La-Fayette Institute. In 1939 she entered the Mathematics Course at the University of the Federal District (UDF), but she only had 15 days of class, as the university was extinguished by Federal Decree nº 1.063 / 39. Teachers and students were transferred to the Mathematics Course at the recently created National Faculty of Philosophy (FNFi).

Maria Laura obtained her bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1941. In 1942 she completed her teaching degree. In 1949, she obtained the title of doctor in Mathematics, being the first woman to obtain the title in Brazil. Before obtaining her doctorate, she was already an assistant professor in the Mathematics Department at FNFi, participating in the creation of the Brazilian Center for Physical Research (CBPF), along with César Lattes (1924-2005) and José Leite Lopes (1918-2006), in 1949. In the same year, she taught Geometry classes in the Engineering course at the newly created Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA) and worked, in the United States, at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Chicago.

In 1952, she founded the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA), together with professor Cândido Lima da Silva Dias (1913-1998). In March of the same year, she graduated from the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.

In 1956 she married the renowned physicist professor José Leite Lopes. In 1961 she was appointed professor of Professional Technical Education in the State of Guanabara and in 1967, she assumed the head of the Department of Mathematics at FNFi, until it became the Institute of Mathematics at UFRJ.

Exile
In 1969, under Institutional Act Number Five (A.I.5), she and her husband are exiled and banned from Brazil. The couple left for France, where Maria Laura begins her research in Mathematics Education at the Institute de Recherche en Enseignement de Mathematiques. She returned to Brazil only in 1974, with international experience and is invited to be the coordinator of Mathematics at Escola Israelita Brasileira Eliezer Steinbarg. In 1976, she participates in the foundation of the "Teaching and Research Group in Mathematical Education - GEPEM". The group was chaired by Maria Laura for the first eight years. She coordinated the first research in Mathematics Education in Brazil, "Project Binômio Professor-Student in the Introduction to Mathematics Education - an experimental research".

The Amnesty Law was signed in 1979, still under military rule, Maria Laura resumes her chair at the Institute of Mathematics at UFRJ. In 1981, she and a group of teachers developed the research “Evaluation of Students at the end of the 4th Primary series of Public Schools” in the city of Rio de Janeiro and in 1982 she joined the University Integration Program with the Teaching of the 1st Degree of the Ministry of Education. She developed several surveys for the federal and state government on the teaching of mathematics in the country, seeking to identify deficiencies in schools and in teacher training.

In 1980, these were the first lato-sensu postgraduate course in Mathematical Education in Brazil, followed by the master's and doctorate levels in the teaching of mathematics. In 1988, she founded the Brazilian Society of Mathematical Education, together with other teachers and researchers in the field.

Death
On July 1, 1996, after 65 years of teaching and research career, she received the title of Professor Emeritus at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Her work is now a reference worldwide, with several articles and books published

Full member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Maria Laura passed away on June 20, 2013.

Research

 * Teaching and Learning Processes in Mathematics

Titles

 * Doctor (Mathematics) - National Faculty of Philosophy - University of Brazil - 1949.
 * Free Lecturer (Geometry) - National Faculty of Philosophy - University of Brazil - 1949.
 * Full Professor - Institute of Mathematics - UFRJ - 1967.
 * Professor Emeritus - UFRJ - 1996.

