Physics in Brazil—Ways and means

Like its prominent representative C. M. G. Lattes, physics in Brazil is young. In the tens and twenties a considerable effort to orient the main directions of Brazilian research was made by Henrique Morize, a physicist of French origin, who became professor at the Technical College in Rio de Janeiro and director of the Astronomical Observatory; his orientation is still kept at these institutions by his successors. On a wider scale, organized research in physics started after the first faculties of science and technical research institutes came into existence. Since then it has developed at an astonishing pace in spite of many handicaps which are caused by Brazil's great distance from the principle centers of scientific and industrial production.