\nScientists united<\/a>
\nSeeds of knowledge<\/a>
\nIn search of new audiences<\/a>
\n<\/div>\n
The SBPC emerged in conflictuous times. In 1948, the governor of S\u00e3o Paulo, Adhemar de Barros (1947\u20131951), decided to cut down on any research at the Butantan Institute not directly linked to the production of antivenom. The director of the institute, Eduardo Vaz (1947\u20131951), proceeded to terminate researchers in the fields of \u200b\u200bchemistry and endocrinology. The researchers\u2019 dismissal mobilized other scientists in S\u00e3o Paulo and ultimately led to the creation of the SBPC. \u201cThe protesting researchers were unable to prevent the termination of the Butantan scientists, who would later return to their post, however, after Vaz was replaced by a new director in 1951,\u201d remarks sanitary physician Nelson Iba\u00f1ez, a coordinator at the Special History of Science Laboratory at Butantan Institute, who described this episode in a 2006 article in the journal Cadernos de Hist\u00f3ria da Ci\u00eancia<\/em>.<\/p>\n Jos\u00e9 De Carvalho Filho\/Casa de Oswaldo Cruz archives<\/span><\/a> The 10 researchers who lost their positions at FIOCRUZ in 1970, in a photo from the 1980sJos\u00e9 De Carvalho Filho\/Casa de Oswaldo Cruz archives<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n In 1949 the SBPC launched the journal Ci\u00eancia e Cultura<\/em>, featuring science articles written by researchers, and began organizing annual meetings\u2014the first in Campinas. The Society soon found itself embroiled in other disputes. It put pressure on leaders in the science community to have the S\u00e3o Paulo State Government implement an article of the 1947 Constitution that called for the creation of a foundation to support science research. Their demands were met in 1960 with the founding of FAPESP, which began operation in 1962. During that period, SBPC played an important role in gaining social recognition of the value of what scientists do, and in advocating for better wages and full-time employment, comments political scientist Antonio Jos\u00e9 Junqueira Botelho, a professor at the University Research Institute at Universidade C\u00e2ndido Mendes in Rio de Janeiro, writing in a 1990 article in Social Studies of Science<\/em>.<\/p>\n In 1964, the newly installed military government ousted 85 intellectuals and university professors, among them educators An\u00edsio Teixeira (1900\u20131971) and Paulo Freire (1921\u20131997), and anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro (1922\u20131997). The SBPC expressed its concern about the dismissals and persecution of professors and researchers, which intensified in 1968 with the promulgation of Institutional Act No. 5. In April 1970, the government ordered the suspension of political rights and the compulsory retirement of a group of 10 researchers from the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro. Among them was physician and entomologist Herman Lent (1911\u20132004), one of the founders of the SBPC, who in 1978 described the episode in his book O massacre de Manguinhos<\/em> (The Manguinhos massacre; Avenir). The Rio de Janeiro newspaper Correio da Manh\u00e3<\/em> reported the collective dismissals on April 3, 1970, under the headline \u201cM\u00e9dici punishes scientists.\u201d The journal Ci\u00eancia e Cultura<\/em> reproduced the article, and the Guanabara State Medical Association sent a letter to the president of Brazil\u2014which was reproduced in the Correio<\/em>\u2014requesting, albeit to no avail, that the order for the researchers\u2019 dismissal be withdrawn.<\/p>\n Jos\u00e9 De Carvalho Filho\/Casa de Oswaldo Cruz archives<\/span><\/a> The Correio da Manh\u00e3 article about their collective dismissalJos\u00e9 De Carvalho Filho\/Casa de Oswaldo Cruz archives<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n \u201cThe SBPC took a clear political stance against the dictatorship, but its biggest concern was government interference in the scientific community,\u201d says physicist Sergio Rezende, a former minister of Science and Technology (2005\u20132010) and now a professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco and honorary president of the Society. Many scientists from various fields of knowledge who supported the SBPC were arrested\u2014and some were tortured\u2014for their stand against the military government. Some of them went into exile; others decided to take their chances and stay in Brazil. Physicists, in particular, openly criticized the military government, risking their own academic careers, wrote physicist Olival Freire J\u00fanior, a professor at the Federal University of Bahia (UFB), in a 2009 article in Boletim do Museu Paraense Em\u00edlio Goeldi<\/em>.<\/p>\n Funding for research institutions began to dwindle in the 1970s, as the economy entered into decline. \u201cMoney from the military regime accrued less and less to scientists, who until then had been privileged recipients,\u201d says sociologist Ana Maria Fernandes (1948\u20132018) in her book A constru\u00e7\u00e3o da ci\u00eancia no Brasil e a SBPC <\/em>(The rise of science in Brazil and the SBPC; Editora UnB, 1990). At around this time the SBPC became more vocal on economic, social, and political issues, and began to demand the reinstatement of professors who had been compulsorily retired (the Manguinhos professors would be rehired in 1979 and subsequent years).<\/p>\n From the mid-1970s onwards, \u201cthe SBPC became a place where scientists who wanted to engage in debate could congregate,\u201d says anthropologist Ot\u00e1vio Velho, a professor emeritus at the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and a former secretary and vice president and now honorary president of the Society. \u201cAfter it joined other associations in the fight for democracy, the SBPC was no longer solely concerned with advancing science, and its agenda became somewhat fragmented,\u201d says Junqueira Botelho, now a visiting professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. Science had become more complex, he notes, with federal and state universities playing a more active role, and with other associations vying for space in the science scene, such as the Brazilian Society of Physics (SBF), created in 1966 during the annual SBPC meeting in Blumenau, Santa Catarina.<\/p>\n Ag\u00eancia Brasil <\/span><\/a> The Constituent Assembly is held in 1987 to adopt the 1988 Constitution, which mandated the creation of new state foundations to support researchAg\u00eancia Brasil <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n After the oil crisis in 1973, when fuel prices skyrocketed by 400%, the military government, which had already initiated construction of the Angra I nuclear power plant, became even further vested in nuclear energy as a solution to alleviate the energy crisis. \u201cScientific societies and the SBPC were strongly opposed,\u201d recalls physicist Jos\u00e9 Goldemberg, a former president of SBF (1975\u20131979) and SBPC (1979\u20131981) and now president of FAPESP. \u201cDespite its clashes with the authoritarian government, the SBPC was never shut down by the military,\u201d Goldemberg notes.<\/p>\n In a 15-page document written in March 1987, the SBPC\u2019s Commission for Constitutional Studies, led by sociologist Jos\u00e9 Albertino Rodrigues, a professor at the Federal University of S\u00e3o Carlos (UFSCAR), presented a series of governance recommendations for education, health, territorial space, indigenous peoples, and science and technology. The Constitution passed the next year, on September 22, 1988, and promulgated on October 5, provided in article 218, paragraph 5, that: \u201cStates and the Federal District may allocate part of their budget to public organizations engaged in education and scientific and technological research.\u201d In drafting their own Constitutions, 21 states called for the creation of funds or foundations to manage funding for education and research. Seven state research foundations were then already in operation in S\u00e3o Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Alagoas, Pernambuco, and Maranh\u00e3o, and another two had been legally organized in Para\u00edba and Cear\u00e1. The SBPC supported the creation of further foundations, working with FAPESP officials Fl\u00e1vio Fava de Moraes, Francisco Romeu Landi (1933\u20132004) and Alberto Carvalho da Silva (1916\u20132002).<\/p>\n \u201cIn the last 14 years, there have been many successful efforts to advocate a modern approach to governance in science and technology and higher education,\u201d says biochemist Helena Nader, a professor at the Federal University of S\u00e3o Paulo (UNIFESP). She served for three terms as president of the SBPC (from 2011 to 2017) and for two terms as vice president to mathematician Marco Antonio Raupp (2007\u20132011), whom she replaced when he left for the Brazilian Space Agency.<\/p>\n Adriano Vizoni \/Folhapress <\/span><\/a> The March for Science in 2017, in S\u00e3o Paulo, against federal budget cuts to science and technology programsAdriano Vizoni \/Folhapress <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n One of the Society\u2019s greatest battles under Raupp was the Forest Code. The SBPC and ABC were in disagreement with the Federal Government\u2019s proposed wording, so they formed a working group. One of the results from their efforts was the book O C\u00f3digo Florestal e a ci\u00eancia: Contribui\u00e7\u00f5es para o di\u00e1logo<\/em> (The Forest Code and Science: Contributions to the debate; SBPC and ABC), launched at the National Congress in Bras\u00edlia, in 2011. \u201cThe Forest Code would have been the worse without our input. We succeeded in widening the protected buffer zones along rivers. We were unable to include mangroves as a strategic ecosystem, but we will keep trying,\u201d she says. \u201cDialog with congressmen is difficult but possible.\u201d<\/p>\n There have also been defeats. The most recent, Nader says, was the approval of Constitutional Amendment 95\/2016, which froze public spending across the board, including funding for universities and research centers. \u201cI wrote articles, I spoke to ministers and congressmen. They could have rejected it, but chose not to for lack of awareness of the impact that science, technology, and innovation has on a country’s economy.\u201d<\/p>\n Now as honorary president, Helena will attend a hearing at the Brazilian Supreme Court in July on the decriminalization of abortion, one of the causes the Society has more recently embraced. The book A ci\u00eancia e o Poder Legislativo no Brasil <\/em>(Science and Brazil\u2019s Legislative Branch; SBPC, 2017) describes some of the Society’s biggest battles, and many more are sure to come. In a 2008 article in Folha de S.Paulo<\/em>, Raupp wrote: \u201cSeveral decades of struggle will still be needed to put Brazilian science not only on an equal footing with the world\u2019s most advanced nations, but\u2014above all\u2014at the service of the country\u2019s social and economic development.\u201d<\/p>\n The second article in a four-part series celebrating the 70th<\/sup> anniversary of the SBPC<\/em><\/p>\n > The next article in the series will describe the SBPC\u2019s efforts in science outreach.<\/em><\/p>\n Scientific articles<\/strong> Books<\/strong>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/060_SBPC_03.jpg\")
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\nIBANEZ, N. et al<\/em>. De Instituto Soroter\u00e1pico a Centro de Medicina Experimental: Institucionaliza\u00e7\u00e3o do Butantan no per\u00edodo de 1920 a 1940<\/a>. Cadernos de Hist\u00f3ria da Ci\u00eancia<\/strong>. Vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 77\u2013103. 2006.
\nBOTELHO, A. J. J. The professionalization of Brazilian scientists, the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC), and the state, 1948\u201360<\/a>. Social Studies of Science<\/strong>. Vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 473\u2013502. Aug. 1990.
\nFREIRE JR., O. et al<\/em>. Ci\u00eancia e pol\u00edtica durante o regime militar (1964\u20131984): A percep\u00e7\u00e3o dos f\u00edsicos brasileiros<\/a>. Boletim do Museu Paraense Em\u00edlio Goeldi.<\/strong> Ci\u00eancias Humanas.<\/strong> Vol. 4 (3), pp. 479\u201385. 2009.<\/p>\n
\nNADER, H. B.; OLIVEIRA, F. de; MOSSRI, B. de B. (orgs.) A ci\u00eancia e o Poder Legislativo no Brasil \u2013 Relatos e experi\u00eancias<\/strong>. SBPC: S\u00e3o Paulo, 1st<\/sup> ed., 2017.
\nFERNANDES, A. F. A constru\u00e7\u00e3o da ci\u00eancia no Brasil e a SBPC<\/strong>. Bras\u00edlia: Editora UnB, 2nd<\/sup> ed., 2000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Society works to gain recognition for researchers and plays an active role in some of the great science debates in Brazil","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":273283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[241],"coauthors":[5968],"class_list":["post-273268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-history"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273268"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277680,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273268\/revisions\/277680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273268"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=273268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}