Launch a Seminar on Methods of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Theory aimed at especially promising students

In 1988, Luis Magalhães launched with Carlos Rocha a Seminar on Methods of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Theory aimed at students to motivate them for Differential Equations, Dynamical Systems, Geometry and Topology.

It was attended by about 12 students of the IST Applied Mathematics and Computing and Technological Physics Engineering degree programs, including the following who later on became professors in the IST Mathematics Department:

• Rui Loja Fernandes (presently Lois M. Lackner Professor in Mathematics at U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with PhD in Mathematics at U. of Minnesota with Peter Olver (1994)),
  
• Miguel Abreu (presently Full Professor at IST Department of Mathematics, with PhD in Mathematics at Stanford U. with (Yakov Eliashberg) (1996)),
  
• Luis Barreira (presently Full Professor at IST Department of Mathematics, with PhD in Mathematics at Penn. State U. with Yakov Pesin (1996)),
  
• João Pimentel Nunes (presently Full Professor at IST Department of Mathematics, with PhD in Physics at Brandeis U. with Howard Joel Schnitzer (1996)),
  
• Ana Cannas da Silva (presently Adjunct Professor and Senior Scientist at ETH Zurich, with PhD at MIT with Victor Guillemin (1996)),
  
• Carlos Florentino (presently Full Professor at Faculty of Sciences of U. de Lisboa, with PhD in Mathematics at SUNY-Stony Brook with Leon Armenovich Takhtajan (1997)),
  
• Leonor Godinho (presently Associate Professor at IST Department of Mathematics, with PhD in Mathematics at SUNY-Stony Brook with Dusa McDuff (1999)),
  
• Gustavo Granja (presently Assistant Professor at IST Department of Mathematics, with PhD in Mathematics at MIT with Jerome Hopkins (1999)),
  
• Pedro Ferreira dos Santos (presently Associate Professor at IST Department of Mathematics, with PhD in Mathematics at SUNY-Stony Brook with Herbert Lawson (1999)),
  
• Rui Saramago (presently Assistant Professor at IST Department of Mathematics, with PhD in Mathematics at Johns Hopkins U. with Stephen Wilson and Michael Boardman (2000)),

and also:

• Pedro Gil Ferreira (presently Professor of Astrophysics at U. of Oxford, with PhD in Theorectical Physics at Imperial College London with Andreas Albrecht (1995)),
• Bruno Oliveira (presently Associate Professor of Mathematics at U. of Miami, with PhD in Mathematics at Columbia U. with Fedor A. Bogomolov (1997)).

Several students have mentioned in different occasions that this Seminar was of decisive importance for their careers, as "it was the first instance of contact with current research topics".

Another result of this initiative was the lectore notes Luis T. Magalhães, Carlos Rocha, Methods of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Theory, Departamento de Matemãtica, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisboa. 1991-