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Portuguese mathematician (born 1956) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jorge Nuno Silva (born 1956) is a Portuguese mathematician who taught at the University of Lisbon, starting in 1995 and retiring in 2023.[1] His interests encompass the pedagogy of mathematics, history of mathematics, history of board games, mathematical games, and recreational mathematics. He is the chief editor for Recreational Mathematics Magazine[2] and Board Game Studies Journal.[3]
In 1974, Silva completed his secondary education at the National Lyceum of Viana do Castelo. Subsequently, in 1976/77, he enrolled at the University of Lisbon School of Medicine. In 1983, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Pure Mathematics from the University of Lisbon Faculty of Sciences (FCUL).[4] In 1991 he obtained a Master of Arts degree at UC Berkeley, writing Some Notes on Game Bounds under the direction of Elwyn Berlekamp.[5] In 1994 he got a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley with the dissertation, "Some Notes on the Theory of Hilbert Spaces of Analytic Functions on the Unit Disc" under doctoral advisor Donald Erik Sarason.[6]
From 1995 until his retirement in April 2023 he was a professor at the University of Lisbon.[4] First at the Department of Mathematics (1995-2006), and then at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (2006-2023).
He is a teacher trainer for Associação Ludus and the Portuguese Mathematical Society.
In 1998 Silva wrote Berkley Problems of Mathematics, a compendium of problems which is widely used by PhD candidates as a reference.[7] He is president of the Ludus Association (Associação Ludus), an organization for popularizing the culture and history of mathematics.[8] He is a member of Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia (CIUHCT)
Silva has been involved in efforts to popularize mathematics around the world. In a 2009 interview he stated his guiding philosophy: "Mathematics is, by its very nature, the pure joy of thinking, and the same goes for board games. There is a lack of challenging activities in our Western culture. Games can close this gap; there are many interrelationships between mathematics, history, and culture."[9] In an interview with Diário de Notícias he said, "One day a great game will be invented to teach Mathematics and the world will change."[10]
Silva is the co-founder of the Circo Matemático which, since its founding in 2011, has toured more than a dozen countries on four continents promoting the popularization of mathematics.[11]
In Portugal he has had an enormous effect on mathematics in public education[12] and he often appears on Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) as an expert on games.[13][14]
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