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Ruy Luís Gomes (5 December 1905 – 27 October 1984) was a Portuguese
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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
who made significant contributions to the development of
mathematical physics Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and t ...
and the state of academia in Portugal during the twentieth century. He was part of a generation of young Portuguese mathematicians, including António Aniceto Monteiro (1907–1980), Hugo Baptista Ribeiro (1910–1988) and
José Sebastião e Silva José Sebastião e Silva (12 December 1914 in Mértola – 25 May 1972 in Lisbon) was a Portuguese mathematician. Silva graduated from the University of Lisbon in 1937, and in 1942 he received a grant from the Instituto de Alta Cultura allowing hi ...
(1914–1972), who held the common goal of involving Portugal in the global progression of science through conducting and publishing original research. Because of this, however, he began to gain notoriety as a dissident of the
Salazar regime The ''Estado Novo'' (, lit. "New State") was the corporatist Portuguese state installed in 1933. It evolved from the ''Ditadura Nacional'' ("National Dictatorship") formed after the ''coup d'état'' of 28 May 1926 against the democratic but ...
, which condemned independent thinking. Eventually, he left Portugal for South America to escape further persecution for his involvement with the
Portuguese Communist party The Portuguese Communist Party ( pt, Partido Comunista Português, , PCP) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself patriotic and internationalist,Portug ...
. Following his exile, which lasted nearly two decades, Gomes returned to Portugal for the last ten years of his life before he died of a heart attack in 1984.


Early life and education

Ruy Luís Gomes was born on 5 December 1905 in
Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...
, Portugal to Maria José de Medeiros Alves Gomes and António Luiz Gomes, who was a government official during the
Portuguese First Republic The First Portuguese Republic ( pt, Primeira República Portuguesa; officially: ''República Portuguesa'', Portuguese Republic) spans a complex 16-year period in the history of Portugal, between the end of the period of constitutional monarchy ...
. He attended high school at Rodrigues de Freitas High School before moving to
Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...
when his father accepted a position at the
University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The ...
. In 1922, he completed his secondary education at José Falcão High School before continuing on to study mathematics at the
University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The ...
. In 1928, he received his doctorate from the University of Coimbra at the age of 23. In his dissertation, he analyzed problems in mechanics regarding deviation from
holonomic constraints In classical mechanics, holonomic constraints are relations between the position variables (and possibly time) that can be expressed in the following form: :f(u_1, u_2, u_3,\ldots, u_n, t) = 0 where \ are the ''n'' generalized coordinates that d ...
.


Academic career

In May 1929, shortly after receiving his doctorate, Ruy Luís Gomes applied for a professorship in the mathematical sciences, mechanics, and astronomy group at the University of Coimbra. However, when another candidate for the position was removed from consideration, he objected to the decision and pressured university officials to give him the position. When Gomes' competitor was given the professorship, Gomes returned to Porto and began to teach higher algebra and projective geometry at the University of Porto. In 1933, at the age of 28, he became a Full Professor of mathematics and physics at the same institution. Here, he began a relationship with Professor Abel Salazar, who taught Gomes about
neopositivism Logical positivism, later called logical empiricism, and both of which together are also known as neopositivism, is a movement in Western philosophy whose central thesis was the verification principle (also known as the verifiability criterion o ...
and inspired his research on the
Theory of Relativity The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical phenomena in ...
. Gomes was dedicated to the dissemination of research in the mathematical sciences. He founded the ''
Portugaliae Mathematica ''Portugaliae Mathematica'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the European Mathematical Society on behalf of the Portuguese Mathematical Society. It covers all branches of mathematics. The journal was established in 1937, by Antó ...
'' journal in 1937 with the help of his colleagues and published his research in numerous journals in Portugal and throughout Europe. In 1942, he founded the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Porto, where he trained aspiring mathematicians and organized research seminars. Gomes taught courses in the Theory of Relativity, Theory of Potential, Theory of Measure and Integration, Hilbert Spaces, and Quantum Mechanics over the course of his career. As an instructor, he utilized discussion-based classes in an attempt to involve his students in his research. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Ruy Luís Gomes earned recognition from academics throughout Europe, including
Tullio Levi-Civita Tullio Levi-Civita, (, ; 29 March 1873 – 29 December 1941) was an Italian mathematician, most famous for his work on absolute differential calculus ( tensor calculus) and its applications to the theory of relativity, but who also made signif ...
,
John von Neumann John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...
, and Nobel Prize winner
Louis de Broglie Louis Victor Pierre Raymond, 7th Duc de Broglie (, also , or ; 15 August 1892 – 19 March 1987) was a French physicist and aristocrat who made groundbreaking contributions to quantum theory. In his 1924 PhD thesis, he postulated the wave n ...
, for his research in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. However, in 1947, the Salazar regime banished Gomes and many other researchers from the university. After a decade of political persecution and involvement with the Portuguese Communist party, he fled to Argentina in order to continue his academic pursuits at the Universidad Nacional del Sur in Bahia Blanca. In 1962, he relocated to the University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, where he would eventually gain the title of Professor Emeritus. Ruy Luís Gomes returned to his hometown in 1974 and accepted the position of Rector of the University of Porto. Although he retired the following year, he co-founded the Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute during this time. In retirement, he continued to study mathematics, conduct seminars, and mentor young Portuguese and Brazilian scholars.


Political involvement

Ruy Luís Gomes began to gain notoriety as a resistant to the democratic party when his research was published by the independent Portuguese journals ''O Diabo'' and ''Sol Nascente.'' In 1945, he began attending rallies held by the anti-regime organization known as the Movement of Democratic Unity. Several years later, he would further establish himself as a dissident through his commitment to the National Democratic Movement, where he served as the organization's president. In 1951, he was chosen to be the presidential candidate of the communist party, against the candidate of the
regime In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan J ...
, General Francisco Craveiro Lopes, and the moderate opposition candidate, Admiral
Manuel Quintão Meireles Manuel Carlos Quintão Meireles (14 December 1880 – 11 March 1962) was a Portuguese Navy admiral and politician. He initially supported the Military Dictatorship, after the 28 May 1926 revolution, but later moved to the Democratic Opposition si ...
. However, before the election, the Salazar regime enacted measures through the Supreme Court of Justice which disallowed his candidature due to his communist leanings. In the years between his founding of the Centre for Mathematical Sciences in 1942 and his departure for Argentina in 1958, Gomes was imprisoned on numerous occasions for his political affiliations. Thus, he sought refuge in Argentina in order to escape the political persecution that made his scientific research impossible. Several months following the
Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution ( pt, Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April ( pt, 25 de Abril, links=no), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime on 25 April 1974 in Lis ...
of 25 April 1974, Gomes returned to Portugal, where he served as a member of the
Council of State A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...
and as
rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
of the University of Porto (1974–75).


See also

* António Aniceto Monteiro * Abel Salazar


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gomes, Ruy Luis 1905 births 1984 deaths People from Porto 20th-century Portuguese mathematicians Portuguese anti-fascists University of Coimbra alumni Portuguese exiles Portuguese expatriates in Brazil Portuguese expatriates in Argentina Academic staff of Universidad Nacional del Sur