Page 152 - Textos de Matemática Vol. 34

142 F. R. DIAS AGUDO
Mathematics Department. On the following day I was introduced to the recently graduated Sampaio Martins, who would be my assistant in the courses in Analysis which I had been assigned to teach.
In associating myself with great pleasure with this homage which is being attrib- uted to him, I have at the same time the satisfaction of calling up from memory the two years of intense and varied work which allowed me to work side by side with numerous mathematics colleagues and with those of other academic areas, and to come into contact with new lands and new people.
I recall that this was a period in which there was a huge interest and great expectations concerning the much yearned for reform of the Portuguese University. The so-called Portuguese pilot team, which had been charged with a project launched by the OCDE for the less developed members to “create a study of their needs for academic and technical research in relation to economic development”, and that, as a consequence, had analysed the whole of the Portuguese technolog- ical/scientific system, had submitted their report to the Ministry of Education in February of 1968; voices were still being heard calling for the necessity of a pro- found reform of the university system. The magazine “Social Analysis” dedicated five issues (20 - 24, Vol. VI) to the theme “The University in Portuguese Life”; one of the first councils of ministers, over which Marcello Caetano presided, in October of 1968, had approved the realization of a broad reaching inquiry into the subject, within and beyond the universities; the newspaper “The Capital” had launched a discussion entitled “Problems of the University”, which drew in dozens of professors, students, and private parties. And it was Jos´e Veiga Sim˜ao, the first chancellor and the great architect of the Louren¸co Marques University, called up by the National Education Minister in January 1970, who would have the opportunity to begin the desired reform of higher education in Portugal, both in its qualitative aspects, as
well as in the quantitative ones.
A new recruiting regime was defined early in March of 1970 for enlisting staff
who were qualified to teach and conduct research; in August the doctoral exams were profoundly altered; and I remember warmly how the teachers in the science courses at the Lourenc¸o Marques University, where I began teaching in November of this same year, demonstrated their dedication and their eagerness for all that was being prepared in frequent meetings and various interventions7.
But let us return to Sampaio Martins and to the teaching environment at the Louren¸co Marques University.
7Veiga Sim˜ao put the document “General Lines for the Reform of Higher Education” to public discussion and among the thousands of reports, letters received and articles published in the press, it pleases me to be able to refer to an interview which I gave on the subject to the “Louren¸co Marques Daily” in 17.03.71.