At the General Assembly meeting on 4th December 1999 the CIM Administration Board for the period 2000/2004 was elected. The next President will be Professor Luís Trabucho, Universidade de Lisboa, with Professors Amílcar Sernadas, Instituto Superior Técnico and João Filipe Queiró, Universidade de Coimbra, as Vice-Presidents.

Professors Carlos Guedes de Oliveira, Universidade do Porto and Luís Nunes Vicente, Universidade de Coimbra, will serve as Secretary and Treasurer respectively.

Professor Paula Oliveira, Universidade de Coimbra, will be the General Assembly President while Professora Estelita Vaz, Universidade do Minho, is the Administrative Council President.


MACAU 2000
Mathematics and its Role in Civilization


Professor F. J. Craveiro de Carvalho asked me to choose two outsanding mathematical events of this century. I’ll restrict myself to the field of Abstract Algebra (even that won’t be easy!).

 


Your father was a mathematician. In fact the author of a very successful textbook on complex variable theory (H. R. Chillingworth, Complex Variables, Pergamon Press, 1973). Was that influential in your becoming a mathematician?


Aquilino Ribeiro said that the Portuguese language was a mausoleum of a great literature. But there are other things that seem to be buried in that language. One of these is the Portuguese history of the maritime discoveries. It does not require a great effort to confirm this addition of mine to Aquilino’s mausoleum. If one sim- ply browses through any standard history of science in English or French one barely finds any reference to the Portuguese maritime explorations in the 15th and 16th century.