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Brazil Science and Technology as Modernization
Science and Technology as Modernization, 1945-64
After World War II, it was generally believed that Brazil was becoming
a modern, industrial society, and science and technology were to
be important components of this trend. Two diverging patterns were
already taking shape in the development of science, technology,
and higher education
in Brazil, roughly corresponding to the broad cleavage in Brazilian
society between the economic and political centers of São
Paulo and Rio
de Janeiro. The first was more entrepreneurial and associative,
with strong civilian institutions. The second was more hierarchical,
relying on the civilian and military bureaucracies, and was linked
to the country's poorer regions through patronage.
São Paulo already had the country's main university, and
after World War II the Southeast (Sudeste) Region's scientists organized
two leading institutions, the Brazilian Society for Scientific Development
(Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência--SBPC) and
the São Paulo State Federation to Support Research (Fundação
de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo--FAPESP).
The SBPC became Brazil's main voluntary association for Brazilian
academics and has been very influential in voicing the scientific
community's concerns on national issues, such as protection of intellectual
freedom in the years of the military regime, promotion of a national
computer industry, and opposition to strict patent legislation.
The FAPESP was organized as a very efficient and respected grant-giving
agency, which ran according to strict peer-review procedures. It
received about 1 percent of the state tax revenues. In addition
to the USP, FAPESP, IPT, and SBPC, the state of São Paulo
had sixteen other research institutes linked to different branches
of the state administration. It also had another research-oriented
university, the Campinas State University (Universidade Estadual
de Campinas--Unicamp), and a statewide university devoted to professional
education, São Paulo State University (Universidade Estadual
Paulista--Unesp).
The national government, meanwhile, embarked on its first attempt
to muster the power of atomic energy. This effort was made through
the combined creation of the National Research Council (Conselho
Nacional de Pesquisas--CNPq), now called the National Council for
Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento
Científico e Tecnológico--CNPq), which kept the traditional
acronym, CNPq; the National Nuclear
Energy Commission (Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear--CNEN);
and the Brazilian Center for Physics Research (Centro Brasileiro
de Pesquisas Físicas--CBPF). Together, these three institutions
were supposed to develop the full cycle from the production of nuclear
fuel to its application in energy generation, and eventually the
technology of atomic weaponry. Beleaguered by limited resources,
lack of qualified leadership, and international pressures, the atomic
energy project was effectively abandoned at the end of the second
Getúlio
Dorneles Vargas government (president, 1930-45, 1951-54) in 1954.
The CNPq was turned into a small, underfunded, grant-giving agency.
After its reorganization in the 1970s, the CNPq absorbed the CBPF,
by then an academic research center, as one of its institutes (see
Nuclear
Programs).
One of the most successful institutes of the 1950s, the Aeronautical
Technology Institute (Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica--ITA),
was placed in the city of São José dos Campos, between
Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The Brazilian
Air Force (Fôrça Aérea Brasileira--FAB)
organized the ITA with the support of the United States government,
working in close association with the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. However, the ITA was not restricted to military students
and subjects; it became Brazil's leading engineering school, recruiting
students from all over the country. ITA graduates went on to occupy
central positions in Brazil's industries, research institutions,
and main science and technology agencies. The ITA's research branch,
the Aerospace Technical Center (Centro Técnico Aeroespacial--CTA),
became the basis for Brazil's airplane industry and made São
José dos Campos the hub of Brazil's most sophisticated technological
industries. What was unique about the ITA was this combination of
strong government support, qualified institutional leadership, and
civilian orientation. The latter gave it the ability to tap some
of the best talent among the country's researchers and students.
As a result of the military governments after 1964, the ITA gradually
lost its autonomy and civilian character and entered a period of
decline.
Data as of April 1997
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