Olival Freire Jr. (

Jequié Jequié is a city in the state of Bahia, Brazil. Jequié is 365 km away from Salvador Salvador, meaning "salvation" (or "saviour") in Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese may refer to: * Salvador (name) Arts, entertainment, and media Musi ...

, 1954) is a

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and historian of physics. He is Full Professor of Physics and History of Physics at the

Universidade Federal da Bahia The Federal University of Bahia (, UFBA) is a public university located mainly in the city of Salvador. It is the largest university in the state of Bahia. Students can study there without paying tuition fees, as it is a public university. To j ...

, former president of the ''Brazilian Society for the History of Science'' and president of the Commission for the History of Modern Physics,

International Union of History and Philosophy of Science The International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology is one of the members of the International Science Council (ISC). It was founded in 1955 by merging the International Union of History of Science (IUHS) and the Internation ...

Education and career

Freire Jr. studied electrical engineering for a year and a half at the

(UFBA) before, impressed by the lectures of physicist Benedito Pepe, he switched to physics.Interview with the physicist Olival Freire. Jr. by Wagner Ferreia
, 13 April 2011 (downloaded 26 March 2012) He wrote his master's thesis with Amelia Hambuger on interpretations of

quantum physics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

, in particular the interpretation by

Vladimir Fock Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock (or Fok; ) (December 22, 1898 – December 27, 1974) was a Soviet physicist, who did foundational work on quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. Biography He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. In ...

, and subsequently wrote his Ph.D. thesis with Michel Paty and Shozo Montoyama on

David Bohm David Joseph Bohm (; 20 December 1917 – 27 October 1992) was an American scientist who has been described as one of the most significant Theoretical physics, theoretical physicists of the 20th centuryDavid Peat Who's Afraid of Schrödinger' ...

's approach to

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

. He worked as post-doctoral researcher at the

Université Paris VII Paris Diderot University, also known as Paris 7 (), was a French university located in Paris, France. It was one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was split into 13 universities in 1970. Paris Diderot merged with Paris ...

, at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, and subsequently at the

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

. Freire Jr. is Associate Professor and Researcher II UFBA in the History of Science. He is also president of the ''Brazilian Society for the History of Science'' and vice-president of the Commission for the History of Modern Physics,

. His current research covers especially also the

history of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient history, ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural science, natural, social science, social, and formal science, formal. Pr ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Awards and honors

In 2004, Freire Jr. was awarded a Senior Fellowship from the

Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology The Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology (1992–2006) was a research institute established at MIT, and housed in a renovated building (E56) on campus at 38 Memorial Drive, overlooking the Charles River.Charles H. BallMIT to ...

, MIT, USA. In 2011, he was one of the winners of the

Prêmio Jabuti The Prêmio Jabuti (the "Tortoise Prize") is the most traditional literary award in Brazil, given by the . It was conceived by Edgard Cavalheiro in 1959 when he presided over the CBL, with the interest of rewarding authors, editors, illustrators, ...

exact sciences The exact sciences or quantitative sciences, sometimes called the exact mathematical sciences, are those sciences "which admit of absolute precision in their results"; especially the mathematical sciences. Examples of the exact sciences are ma ...

for his book on ''Quantum theory: historical studies and cultural implications''.

Publications

* Olival Freire Jr.
"A story without an ending: the quantum physics controversy 1950–1970"
''Science & Education'', vol. 12, pp. 573–586, 2003 * Olival Freire Jr.
"Science and Exile: David Bohm, the Hot Times of the Cold War, and His Struggle for a New Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics"
''Historical Studies on the Physical and Biological Sciences'', vol. 36, no. 1, 2005, pp. 31–35 * Olival Freire: ''David Bohm e a controvérsia dos quanta''. Coleção CLE, Volume 27. Campinas :

UNICAMP The University of Campinas (), commonly called Unicamp, is a public research university in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil. Established in 1962, Unicamp was designed from scratch as an integrated Research institute, researc ...

, Centro de Lógica, Epistemologia e História da Ciência, 1999, 244 p. * Olival Freire Jr.
"David Bohm e as controvérsias do mundo dos Quanta"
''Ciência Hoje'', março de 2001, p. 35 * Olival Freire Jr.: ''L'interprétation de la mécanique quantique selon Paul Langevin'', La Pensée, 1993 (''Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics according to Paul Langevin''). * Olival Freire Jr.
''The quantum dissidents: rebuilding the foundations of quantum mechanics (1950-1990)''
Springer, 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freire, Olival Jr. Living people 20th-century Brazilian physicists Historians of science 20th-century Brazilian historians Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Academic staff of the Federal University of Bahia