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Marco Antônio Raupp

Raupp takes over at the MCT

Marcelo Casal Jr. / ABr

Raupp (right) and Mercadante: the new minister has broad experience as a managerMarcelo Casal Jr. / ABr

The 73-year old mathematician Marco Antônio Raupp, from Rio Grande do Sul Sate, is the new head of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT) in the place of Senator Aloizio Mercadante, who has taken over the Ministry of Education. Raupp has a degree in physics from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and a PhD in mathematics from the University of Chicago, in the USA. Based in São Paulo, he is an associate professor at the University of São Paulo and has vast experience in science and technology management. He was a director of the National Institute of Space Research (Inpe), the National Laboratory of Scientific Computing, the Polytechnic Institute of the State University of Rio de Janeiro and of the Technology Center of São José dos Campos (SP). Until February 2011, he was president of the Brazilian Society for Progress in Science (SBPC), when he was invited to head the Brazilian Space Agency.
“Raupp is a great manager, knows how to talk to people and is highly familiar with overall science, technology and Brazilian innovation,” says Helena Nader, current president elect of the SBPC. “The challenges are great: ensuring compliance with the MCT budget and convincing the political class of the importance of the royalties from the pre-salt layer oil fields are just some of them.” It is also important to put an end to the polarization between basic and applied science: “Sometimes, there’s a tendency to put a large part of the investment funds at just one end or the other,” she says.

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