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.

[1] 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.

[2] 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.

[2] 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.

[2] 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.

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).