The Graduate Program in Physics (PPGFIS) of the UFBA Institute of Physics (IF-UFBA) was created in 1975 with the implementation of the Master's course, containing a single area of concentration: Solid State Physics. Initially, the Program had a small number of professors with a doctorate degree, mostly visiting professors. As a result of a training policy in the 1980s, several professors at the IF-UFBA held their PhDs, both in Brazil and abroad. This allowed, in 1990, the Masters in Physics to be expanded, including two areas of concentration: Condensed Matter Physics and Statistical Physics. The IF-UFBA training initiatives also led to the full qualification of the faculty, and in 1992, the PPGFIS had a total of 22 (twenty-two) permanent professors and 1 (one) visiting professor.
Also in the 1990s, two new areas of concentration were created in the PPGFIS: Atomic and Molecular Physics and Mathematical Physics-Theory of Campos. Until 2006, the number of permanent professors remained practically constant, with just over 20 (twenty) members. During this period, some IF-UFBA professors completed their doctorates at other institutions, some new doctors were hired and other professors retired or terminated their employment relationship with UFBA. There were also dismissals of PPGFIS professors. With the expansion policy of the Federal Universities, the number of professors grew, reaching close to 30 permanent professors in the Program. This resulted in the creation of the Doctoral Degree in Physics, in the first semester of 2007 (40 years after the first defense of a Masters in the Program), with four areas of concentration: Atomic and Molecular Physics; Physics of Solids and Materials; Statistical Physics; and Quantum Field Theory, Gravitation and Cosmology.
Currently, the Graduate Program in Physics has research groups established in 7 well-defined lines of research. Namely: Atomic and Molecular Physics; Solids and Materials Physics; Statistical Physics and Complex Systems; Physics of Surfaces and Nanomaterials; Particle and Field Physics; Gravitation and Cosmology and Applied Physics. These lines involve experienced researchers and young doctors hired in recent years, who carry out their research in basic physics (theoretical and experimental), as well as in physics applied to other areas of knowledge. In this case, researches in physics applied in engineering, biomotricity, oceanography and climatology and other complex systems stand out.
Analyzing the little more than 40 years since the creation of the Master's course, we can see the important role that the implementation of the Doctorate has played for the PPGFIS and for the IF-UFBA. For example, from 1977 (year of first defense) to 2016, 182 masters were awarded in the Program, distributed as follows: 1977 to 1986, 12 degrees; 1987 to 1996, 18 degrees; 1997 to 2006, 44 degrees; 2007 to 2016, 108 degrees. In addition, since the creation of the doctorate in 2007, 57 doctors have been awarded the title. In the 2013-2016 quadrennium, 53 masters and 22 doctors received their titles. In the 2017-2020 quadrennium, 33 masters and 32 doctors received their titles. There was also a leap in the quality of research laboratory infrastructure. In the proposal to create the Doctorate submitted in 2006 to CAPES, the Program had the support of two experimental laboratories (the Laboratory of Photoacoustics and the Laboratory of Optical Properties), in addition to the Laboratory of Applied Computational Physics.
After the approval of the Doctorate, the Program was supported by the following laboratories installed at the IF-UFBA: Multi-User Electronic Microscopy Laboratory at UFBA (LAMUME), Thermal and Photoacoustic Properties Laboratory (LPTF), Optical Properties Laboratory (LaPO), Molecular Spectroscopy and Thin Film Laboratory (LEMFF), Electrical Measurement Laboratory (Lab. Hall), Materials Laboratory (LabMat), Stable Isotopes Laboratory (LAISE), Solar Energy Systems Component Certification Laboratory Photovoltaic (LabSolar), XPS/UPS/LEED Instrumentation Laboratory, Rehabilitation Technological Innovation Laboratory, and the Applied Computational Physics Laboratory. This growth is the result of a policy to strengthen research in experimental areas started with the creation of the Doctorate, maintaining support for theoretical areas already consolidated.
In order to encourage high-quality experimental research with high scientific production, considering the laboratories already implemented, the hiring of experimental professors with some scientific maturity and with the potential to be part of the permanent staff of the PPGFIS faculty has been encouraged. The hiring of young doctors with such a profile has occurred, albeit smoothly, in recent years. In 2019, the PPGFIS had 5 (five) permanent professors with more than 1000 citations and another 6 (six) professors who had between 500 and 900 citations in their scientific papers. The Program also had 5 (five) permanent researchers with an H-index greater than or equal to 20 and another 7 (seven) researchers with an H-index greater than 10. We recognize that such indicators are relatively modest, considering the area of Physics in the world, but reflect a little of the national reality of the area. Currently, of the 15 (fifteen) current permanent professors, 10 (ten) are CNPq productivity scholarship holders.
Still with regard to intellectual production, the registration of 5 (five) patents and 2 (two) computer programs with the INPI were also filed or granted. PPGFIS professors, individually or through research groups, maintain scientific collaboration activities with various national and foreign teaching and research institutions, resulting in several joint publications, including the participation of several PPGFIS Master's and Doctoral students. Doctoral students, to a greater degree, but also Master's, have successfully entered the labor market, especially in public teaching and research institutions.
From the point of view of evaluation by CAPES, the Doctoral course started with grade 4. However, the Master's course, in the three-year evaluation of 2007, referring to the years 2004 to 2006, maintained its concept 3. In the following evaluation, in 2010, the Program as a whole was finally evaluated with a score of 4. In the 2010-2012 triennial assessment, carried out throughout 2013, the program had its score reduced from 4 to 3. Without the presentation of a plan of restructuring, the PPGFIS suffered a new drop in its concept, in the 2013-2015 triennial evaluation, reaching its continuity no longer recommended by the Astronomy/Physics area, in 2016. However, through an appeal submitted to the CAPES presidency, its concept has been revised to 3, ensuring its continuity until the 2017-2020 quadrennial review.
As part of the actions to restructure the PPGFIS, in 2019, a new Collegiate was formed, as well as the approval of a new regulation with strict criteria for accreditation/re-accreditation of faculty and student selection. With the new criteria, regular accreditation requires that permanent professors or researchers have already achieved maturity and academic-scientific independence, with expressive scientific production, compatible with the national average, and international impact measured by the usual scientometric indicators. For example, number of articles (absolute and annual average), number of citations, H-index and impact factor of publications. In this case, researchers have more than 30 (thirty) articles published, with an annual average equal to or greater than 2 (two) articles (qualified in the Astronomy/Physics area) computed since their doctorate degree.
With the current rules, 8 (eight) scientific articles are required for each researcher in the quadrennium, published in journals classified in the CAPES Qualis-Periódicos system in categories A or B in the field of Astronomy/Physics, with at least 4 articles in these magazines rated A1, A2 or B1 in the field of Astronomy/Physics. This accreditation criterion has already been required, since 2019, for the three categories of professors: Permanent Professor, Collaborating Professor and Visiting Professor. Furthermore, in their application for accreditation, the professor must submit an Insertion Program to the Collegiate, which will also be evaluated.
Finally, two changes in the way students are admitted were implemented to improve the quality of new entrants and, in order to reduce the average defense time of Master's and Doctorate courses. The first change is the obligation to carry out the Unified Postgraduate Examination in Physics (EUF), which has already been used as an eliminatory criterion for admission. The second change makes it necessary, for enrollment in the selection process, to present a letter of acceptance from a supervisor, with a brief description of the intended research activities.
Below, we present a history of the PPGFIS management from the 1990s to the present.
PPGFIS Management (1994 - Current)
1994-1996 Coordinator: Delmiro Martinez Baqueiro / Vice-Coordinator: Ossamu Nakamura
1996-1998 Coordinator: Ademir Eugênio de Santana / Vice-Coordinator: Luiz Augusto Carvalho Malbouisson
1998-1998 Coordinator: Luiz Augusto Carvalho Malbouisson (pro tempore)
1998-2000 Coordinator: Jorge Mario Carvalho Malbouisson / Vice-Coordinator: Ossamu Nakamura
2000-2001 Coordinator: Luiz Augusto Carvalho Malbouisson / Vice-Coordinator: Ademir Eugênio de Santana
2001-2003 Coordinator: Arthur Matos Neto / Vice-Coordinator: Ademir Eugênio de Santana
2003-2004 Coordinator: Arthur Matos Neto / Vice-Coordinator: Antônio Ferreira da Silva
2004-2004 Coordinator: Antônio Ferreira da Silva (pro tempore)
2004-2007 Coordinator: Antônio Ferreira da Silva / Vice-Coordinator: Frederico Vasconcellos Prudente
2007-2010 Coordinator: Antônio Ferreira da Silva / Vice-Coordinator: Frederico Vasconcellos Prudente
2010-2011 Coordinator: Jorge Mario Carvalho Malbouisson / Vice-Coordinator: Luciano Melo Abreu
2011-2012 Coordinator: Antônio Ferreira da Silva / Vice-Coordinator: Luciano Melo Abreu
2012-2013 Coordinator: Antônio Ferreira da Silva / Vice-Coordinator: Ângelo Marconi Maniero
2013-2013 Coordinator: Ângelo Marconi Maniero (pro tempore)
2013-2014 Coordinator: Antônio Ferreira da Silva / Vice-Coordinator: Ângelo Marconi Maniero
2014-2015 Coordinator: Antônio Ferreira da Silva / Vice-Coordinator: Maria das Graças Reis Martins
2015-2015 Coordinator: Maria das Graças Reis Martins (pro tempore)
2015-2016 Coordinator: Maria das Graças Reis Martins / Vice-Coordinator: Mário Cezar Ferreira Gomes Bertin
2016-2016 Coordinator: Mário Cezar Ferreira Gomes Bertin (pro tempore)
2016-2017 Coordinator: Frederico Vasconcellos Prudente / Vice-Coordinator: Mário Cezar Ferreira Gomes Bertin
2017-2018 Coordinator: Frederico Vasconcellos Prudente / Vice-Coordinator: Humberto de Almeida Borges
2018-2018 Coordinator: Humberto de Almeida Borges (pro tempore)
2018-2019 Coordinator: Frederico Vasconcellos Prudente / Vice-Coordinator: Humberto de Almeida Borges
2019-2020 Coordinator: Roberto Rivelino de Melo Moreno / Vice-Coordinator: Thiago Albuquerque de Assis
2020-2022 Coordinator: Thiago Albuquerque de Assis / Vice-Coordinator: Ernesto Pinheiro Borges
2022-Current Coordinator: Ernesto Pinheiro Borges / Vice-Coordinator: Eliel Gomes da Silva Neto
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