Universidade Estadual de Campinas

University of Campinas
University of Campinas
Established	October 5, 1966
Type	Public university
Rector	Fernando Ferreira Costa
Staff	9,940
Undergraduates	16,313
Postgraduates	15,393
Location	Campinas, SP, BR
Campus	Urban
Website	www.unicamp.br

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Main entrance of the Campinas campus. Photo: Renato M.E. Sabbatini

Row of yellow tabebuia trees in one of Barão Geraldo's avenues

Universidade Estadual de Campinas (University of Campinas, short UNICAMP) is one of the three public universities of the Brazilian state of São Paulo, along both USP and UNESP.

Its main campus is located in the Barão Geraldo district, 6 miles (10 km) away from downtown Campinas, with additional campuses in Limeira and Piracicaba.

[edit] History

Created in 1962 and physically installed in 1966, Unicamp's original goal was to promote science education in the industrial pole of São Paulo's interior region. As of 2006, the university had about 16,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students, as well as 1,800 faculty members.

Unicamp, which is responsible for around 15% of all Brazilian research,^[1] has courses, colleges and institutes of Medicine, Nursing, Speech therapy, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Biology, Physical Education, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics (Pure, Applied and Computational), Statistics, Computer Sciences, Engineering (Control and Automation, Chemical, Food, Electrical, Computer, Mechanical, Agricultural and Civil), Architecture, Geography, Geology, Economics, Arts, Music, Social Communication, Literature, Linguistics, Philosophy, History and Social Sciences. It also runs two professional vocational high schools, COTUCA (in Campinas) and COTIL (in Limeira).

Unicamp's teaching hospital, Hospital de Clínicas, is the largest public hospital in the region. Unicamp also has a semi-independent structure of more than 20 interdisciplinary centers, labs and groups.

According to the Times Higher Education 2007 World University Rankings, Unicamp is the 177th best university in the world, and the 2nd best in Latin America (after the University of São Paulo in 176th place).

[edit] Colleges and schools

Faculdade de Ciências Médicas (Medical Sciences)
Faculdade de Ciências Aplicadas (Applied Sciences)
Faculdade de Odontologia de Piracicaba (Dentistry)
Faculdade de Educação (Education)
Faculdade de Educação Física (Physical Education)
Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e da Computação (Electrical and Computer Engineering)
Faculdade de Engenharia Química (Chemical Engineering)
Faculdade de Engenharia de Alimentos (Food Engineering)
Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica (Mechanical and Control and Automation Engineering)
Faculdade de Engenharia Agrícola (Agricultural Engineering)
Faculdade de Engenharia Civil (Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urbanism)
Faculdade de Tecnologia (Faculty of Technology)
Instituto de Química (Chemistry)
Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin (Physics)
Instituto de Biologia (Biology)
Instituto de Computação (Computer Science and System Information)
Instituto de Matemática, Estatística e Computação Científica (Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computing)
Instituto de Economia (Economics)
Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (Philosophy and Human Sciences)
Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (Languages)
Instituto de Artes (Arts)
Instituto de Geociências (Earth Sciences) IGe Home page
Centro Superior de Educação Tecnológica de Limeira (Technical Education)

Links to specific colleges and schools can be found here (in Portuguese).

[edit] Interdisciplinary Activities

UNICAMP became extremely well-known and respected in the higher education and research community for its pioneering work regarding policies for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work. Beginning 1982, the University established a system of interdisciplinary groups, nuclei and centers.

[edit] Sports

Sports arena and convention center

The University devotes a fair area of its central campus to sports activities. There are courts for basketball, volleyball, a regulation soccer field, a complete athletics field with running tracks, a competition swimming pool, a huge covered gymnasium for indoor spectator sports, which houses also a convention center. Spaces for many other classes of sports and physical activities are also contemplated, including for indoor climbing, rugby union, martial arts, baseball and softball, aerobic exercise, and so on.

[edit] Libraries

Central Library building

The SBU ("Sistema de Bibliotecas da UNICAMP" or UNICAMP Library System) comprise of a central library and more than 20 other thematic libraries located in its colleges and institutes. It is considered one of the best organized and most complete of university libraries in Latin America.^{[citation needed]} A number of historical libraries and historical and media archives, such as the Arquivo Edgard Leuenroth, have also been established. The library system is fully automated and its collections may be freely accessed and searched on the Internet. Its Digital Library section supports a database with more than 25,000 dissertations presented in the University, in full text, as well access to the largest electronic libraries of academic journals in the world.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Admission

The admission for undergraduate courses is based on an annual open concourse called vestibular. The only request to be filled is to have a complete high school course. Vestibular comprises two stages: the first one is usually accomplished in November, with an essay and a 12-question discursive test on Geography, Mathematics, Physics, History, Biology and Chemistry. Those who get the minimum scores accomplish the second stage in January, taking tests with 12 questions of each subject, two subjects a day: Portuguese (including Brazilian and Portuguese Literature) and Biology; Chemistry and History; Physics and Geography; Mathematics and English. Until 2005, the candidate had option to take a French test instead of English, but it is no longer an option. Classes usually start in March.

For graduate programs, the university applies tests, interviews and analysis of curricula. Some graduate programs also requires a specific exam on the area (such as ANPEC (in Portuguese), for Economics, and PosComp (in Portuguese), for Computing).

[edit] Academic career

Teaching Assistant (Auxiliar de Ensino) - MS-2 (must have a Master's degree and be enrolled in a doctoral program)
Professor Doutor - MS-3 (must have a doctoral or equivalent degree)
Professor Associado - MS-5 (must have a Livre Docente title; equivalent to the German Habilitation)
Professor Titular - MS-6 (top rank, only MS-6 professors are allowed to hold positions such as Dean of a Faculty/School or Rector of the University)

[edit] Administration

As most Brazilian universities, Unicamp's administration is centralized on the figure of a rector. Unicamp rectors have a mandate of 4 years, and are chosen by the state governor from a list of 3 candidates. The candidate list is formed by the 3 most voted by the university community (staff, faculty and students), and the governor has always chosen the most voted candidate as rector. Zeferino Vaz, who drove the installation and establishment of the university, was the first rector and held the position for 12 years.

[edit] List of Unicamp Rectors

Zeferino Vaz (1966-1978)
Plínio Alves de Moraes (1978-1982)
José Aristodemo Pinotti (1982-1986)
Paulo Renato Costa Souza (1986-1990)
Carlos Vogt (1990-1994)
José Martins Filho (1994-1998)
Hermano Tavares (1998-2002)
Carlos Henrique Brito Cruz (2002-2005)
José Tadeu Jorge (2005-2009)
Fernando Ferreira Costa (2009-present)

Carlos Henrique Brito Cruz left the office early in 2005 to become the scientific director of the research funding agency FAPESP, and elections were anticipated to choose the new rector.

[edit] Unicamp Honoris Causa Doctors

As of August, 2005 the University Council had granted 24 honoris causa doctorate in recognition of valuable contribution made to society by people through their scientific or humanitarian work. This is the full list of the granted people (the date in parentheses designates when the title was delivered).

Oscar Niemeyer (18 April 2005)
Cesar Lattes (15 October 2004)
Otto Richard Gottlieb (21 November 2000)
Dom Pedro Maria Casaldáglia Pla (24 October 2000)
Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns (20 October 2000)
Peter Safar (26 February 1996)
Ernesto Sábato (16 August 1994)
Fernando Flávio Marques de Almeida (31 October 1991)
Bernardo Boris Vargaftig (29 August 1991)
Celso Monteiro Furtado (21 August 1990)
Albert O. Hirschman (14 March 1990)
Pietro Maria Bardi (20 December 1989)
Mário Quintana (20 September 1989)
Aníbal Pinto Santa Cruz (25 August 1989)
Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (27 April 1988)
Antonio Candido de Mello e Souza (17 December 1987)
André Franco Montoro (27 May 1987)
Dilson Domingos Funaro (15 August 1986)
Adolpho Martins Penha (6 January 1978)
José Pelúcio Ferreira (23 June 1977)
Casimiro Montenegro Filho (20 December 1975)
Jean Roche (29 October 1975)
Jarbas Gonçalves Passarinho (5 December 1973)
Gleb Wataghin (31 August 1971)

The honoris causa doctorate of Luiz Heitor Correa de Azevedo has been approved on 18 July, 1989 but as of August, 2005 had not been delivered.

[edit] Noted Faculty

César Lattes, physicist, discoverer of Pi meson
José Aristodemo Pinotti, gynecologist and surgeon, federal representative, secretary of health and of education of the State of São Paulo
Cássio Raposo do Amaral, plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Marcelo Damy, nuclear physicist
Paulo Freire, educator
Rubem Alves, philosopher and writer
José Serra, economist, former senator and Minister of Health, presidential candidate, current governor of the State of São Paulo
Crodowaldo Pavan, biologist and geneticist
Fritz Köberle, physician and pathologist
Mario Schenberg, theoretical physicist