La Union de Matematica de Latinomerica y el Caribe se canidata al Premio de las Americas. Palabras del Presidente de la Sociedad Metematica Paraguaya al respecto y en defensa de la candidatura.

"Not only have the EMALCAs constituted a series of groundbreaking steps for mathematics in Paraguay, but also their reach has gone far beyond discovering talented students and setting the scenery for the birth of modern mathematics in this country. They played a key role in structuring efforts towards developing science in Paraguay.

The first EMALCA came just in time to allow UMALCA to show the Paraguayan authorities not only that structuring scientific progress in Paraguay is important for the international community, but also that we have reached a point where such progress can be initiated in a systematic way. In other words the EMALCAs substantially raised the awareness of Paraguayan authorities regarding the importance of strengthening science in Paraguay.

To detail somewhat more the impact of the EMALCAs in Paraguay, we can name some of its most evident landmarks left behind. Successive EMALCAs allowed scientists to visit Paraguay periodically, over five hundred students attended the schools, they involved all of the most important educational institutions in the country and they helped guiding towards graduate schools programs to over twenty students, at least ten of them into mathematics itself or into areas strongly linked to advanced mathematics.

To name some of the somewhat more indirect effects of the EMALCAs we could mention that UMALCA, by the hand of the light brought about by the EMALCAs, helped structuring a masters program in mathematics and a Ph.D. program in computer science. The latter graduated the first doctor (in the history of Paraguay) in 2011; his area was optimization. The same program is expected to produce another five Ph.Ds. in the coming two years (in the areas of applied mathematics, image processing, optimization). Furthermore, fifteen students graduated from the master's program in areas of mathematics and computer science in Paraguay. This current trend in the number of graduates promises to continue.

Finally we could add that all the serious work that costarred and followed the EMALCAs has induced Paraguayan educational institutions to struggle to achieve a critical mass of doctors among its faculty members and to interact through research agreements with foreign universities. One other consequence of this newly induced demand for scientific progress in the country is the creation, by law, of the National Fund for Excellence in Education and Research (FONACIDE).

Today, we chase the dream of having this scientific progress mature and we feel that this dream is more than ever within our reach. To our greatest joy, we have the UMALCA to continue helping in this quest."


Christian Schaerer, President, Sociedad Matemática Paraguaya