Welington Celso de Melo (17 November 1946 – 21 December 2016) was a Brazilian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. Known for his contributions to

dynamical systems theory Dynamical systems theory is an area of mathematics used to describe the behavior of complex dynamical systems, usually by employing differential equations or difference equations. When differential equations are employed, the theory is called '' ...

, he served as full professor at

Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada The Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (IMPA; en, National Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics) is widely considered to be the foremost research and educational institution of Brazil in the area of mathematics. It is loc ...

from 1980 to 2016. Melo wrote numerous papers, one being a complete description of the topological behavior of 1-dimensional real dynamical systems (co-authored with Marco Martens and Sebastian van Strien). He proved the global hyperbolicity of renormalization for ^''r'' unimodal maps (co-authored with Alberto Pinto and Edson de Faria). He was a recipient of the 2003

TWAS Prize This is a list of recipients of the TWAS Prize, awarded annually by The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). Summary Agricultural Sciences Biology Chemistry Earth Sciences Engineering Sciences Mathematics Medical Sc ...

Biography

Born on November 17, 1946, in Guapé, Minas Gerais, Welington studied electrical engineering at the

Federal University of Minas Gerais The Federal University of Minas Gerais ( pt, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, UFMG) is a federalIn the Brazilian Higher Education context, ''Federal'' does not mean ''collegiate'' (even though most Federal Universities in Brazil enjoy a sim ...

(1969). He adopted mathematics after attending a course in the researcher of the Elon Lages Lima Institute in a colloquium in Poços de Caldas, Minas Gerais. Invited by Elon to study at

he moved to Rio de Janeiro with his wife Gilza in 1970, with

Jacob Palis __NOTOC__ Jacob Palis Jr. (born 15 March 1940) is a Brazilian mathematician and professor. Palis' research interests are mainly dynamical systems and differential equations. Some themes are global stability and hyperbolicity, bifurcations, a ...

his advisor, where Welington completed his doctorate in two years, with a thesis published in the prestigious Inventiones Mathematicae in 1972. He did his post-doctorate in mathematics at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1972. He returned two years later to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

to make a career as a researcher at IMPA, where he stayed ever since. Appreciated by different generations of mathematicians, Welington was known and respected for his academic rigor and scientific productivity. Besides mathematics, he was passionate about sailing. On 1987 Steve Smale, Charles Pugh and Welington sailed the Pacific in a long journey on Smale's 43-foot ''Stardust''. On his 30-foot ''Doisdu'' boat, he sailed at least a hundred days a year, mostly along Angra dos Reis's coast. He interpreted the wind with mastery, a phenomenon that can be modeled by dynamic systems, his mathematical specialty. He was proud to have taken on board the ''Doisdu'' six Fields medalists and many friends of IMPA. He died on December 21, 2016, at age 70, of complications of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

Awards and honors

Brazilian Academy of Sciences The Brazilian Academy of Sciences ( pt, italic=yes, Academia Brasileira de Ciências or ''ABC'') is the national academy of Brazil. It is headquartered in the city of Rio de Janeiro and was founded on May 3, 1916. Publications It publishes a lar ...

, Member (1991) *

National Order of Scientific Merit The National Order of Scientific Merit ( pt, Ordem Nacional do Mérito Científico) is an honor bestowed upon Brazilian and foreign personalities recognized for their scientific and technical contributions to the cause and development of science in ...

, Commander (1996) * Invited Lecturer at the International Congress of Mathematicians, (1998) * National Order of Scientific Merit, Grand Cross (2002) * Third World Academy of Sciences Prize (2003) *

The World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable deve ...

, Member (2005)

References

External links

Welington de Melo's website at IMPACurriculum Vitae
* 1946 births 2016 deaths 21st-century Brazilian mathematicians 20th-century Brazilian mathematicians People from Minas Gerais Recipients of the Great Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit (Brazil) Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada alumni Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada researchers TWAS laureates Dynamical systems theorists {{Brazil-scientist-stub