Ruy Luís Gomes

Ruy Luís Gomes (5 December 1905 – 27 October 1984) was a Portuguese mathematician who made significant contributions to the development of mathematical physics and the state of academia in Portugal during the twentieth century. He was part of a generation of young Portuguese mathematicians, including António Aniceto Monteiro (1907–1980), Hugo Baptista Ribeiro (1910–1988) and José Sebastião e Silva (1914–1972), who held the common goal of involving Portugal in the global progression of science through conducting and publishing original research. Because of this, however, he began to gain notoriety as a dissident of the Salazar regime, which condemned independent thinking. Eventually, he left Portugal for South America to escape further persecution for his involvement with the Portuguese Communist party. Following his exile, which lasted nearly two decades, Gomes returned to Portugal for the last ten years of his life before he died of a heart attack in 1984.

Ruy Luís Gomes, c. 1950

Early life and education

Ruy Luís Gomes was born on 5 December 1905 in Porto, Portugal to Maria José de Medeiros Alves Gomes and António Luiz Gomes, who was a government official during the Portuguese First Republic. He attended high school at Rodrigues de Freitas High School before moving to Coimbra when his father accepted a position at the University of Coimbra. In 1922, he completed his secondary education at José Falcão High School before continuing on to study mathematics at the University of Coimbra. In 1928, he received his doctorate from the University of Coimbra at the age of 23. In his dissertation, he analyzed problems in mechanics regarding deviation from holonomic constraints.

Academic career

Ruy Luís Gomes founded the Abel Salazar Biomedical Institute at the University of Porto in 1975.

In May 1929, shortly after receiving his doctorate, Ruy Luís Gomes applied for a professorship in the mathematical sciences, mechanics, and astronomy group at the University of Coimbra. However, when another candidate for the position was removed from consideration, he objected to the decision and pressured university officials to give him the position. When Gomes' competitor was given the professorship, Gomes returned to Porto and began to teach higher algebra and projective geometry at the University of Porto. In 1933, at the age of 28, he became a Full Professor of mathematics and physics at the same institution. Here, he began a relationship with Professor Abel Salazar, who taught Gomes about neopositivism and inspired his research on the Theory of Relativity.

Gomes was dedicated to the dissemination of research in the mathematical sciences. He founded the Portugaliae Mathematica journal in 1937 with the help of his colleagues and published his research in numerous journals in Portugal and throughout Europe. In 1942, he founded the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Porto, where he trained aspiring mathematicians and organized research seminars. Gomes taught courses in the Theory of Relativity, Theory of Potential, Theory of Measure and Integration, Hilbert Spaces, and Quantum Mechanics over the course of his career. As an instructor, he utilized discussion-based classes in an attempt to involve his students in his research.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Ruy Luís Gomes earned recognition from academics throughout Europe, including Tullio Levi-Civita, John von Neumann, and Nobel Prize winner Louis de Broglie, for his research in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. However, in 1947, the Salazar regime banished Gomes and many other researchers from the university. After a decade of political persecution and involvement with the Portuguese Communist party, he fled to Argentina in order to continue his academic pursuits at the Universidad Nacional del Sur in Bahia Blanca. In 1962, he relocated to the University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, where he would eventually gain the title of Professor Emeritus.

Ruy Luís Gomes returned to his hometown in 1974 and accepted the position of Rector of the University of Porto. Although he retired the following year, he co-founded the Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute during this time. In retirement, he continued to study mathematics, conduct seminars, and mentor young Portuguese and Brazilian scholars.

Political involvement

Ruy Luís Gomes began to gain notoriety as a resistant to the democratic party when his research was published by the independent Portuguese journals O Diabo and Sol Nascente. In 1945, he began attending rallies held by the anti-regime organization known as the Movement of Democratic Unity. Several years later, he would further establish himself as a dissident through his commitment to the National Democratic Movement, where he served as the organization's president. In 1951, he was chosen to be the presidential candidate of the communist party, against the candidate of the regime, General Francisco Craveiro Lopes, and the moderate opposition candidate, Admiral Manuel Quintão Meireles. However, before the election, the Salazar regime enacted measures through the Supreme Court of Justice which disallowed his candidature due to his communist leanings. In the years between his founding of the Centre for Mathematical Sciences in 1942 and his departure for Argentina in 1958, Gomes was imprisoned on numerous occasions for his political affiliations. Thus, he sought refuge in Argentina in order to escape the political persecution that made his scientific research impossible. Several months following the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974, Gomes returned to Portugal, where he served as a member of the Council of State and as rector of the University of Porto (1974–75).

See also

• António Aniceto Monteiro
• Abel Salazar