The State University of Campinas (Unicamp) is organizing the first edition of the Asimov-Brazil Prize, which aims to stimulate interest in scientific culture among high school students. Created by the Institute of Advanced Studies (IdEA), the initiative will annually reward writers with works of scientific and cultural dissemination published in Brazil and high school students who vote for the best books and produce reviews about the works.
The proposal is to reproduce the model created in Italy, in 2016, by physicist Francesco Vissani and which in its fifth edition has around 4.000 students from 137 Italian schools. Vissani was IdEA's first guest on the Resident Scientist's “Cesar Lattes” Program, in September 2019, and helped to design the Brazilian version, currently serving on the Scientific Committee.
The first stage involves the registration of schools interested in participating, with public or private institutions from across the State of São Paulo being able to register. Teachers, directors or coordinators must send an email expressing the school's interest to the address asimov@unicamp.br. Once the school has registered, students will be able to apply until June 3rd directly through the award website: www.asimovbrasil.unicamp.br. Reviews can be sent until July 3rd and the awards ceremony will take place in September.
The Scientific Committee has just announced the five finalist books for this first edition: “The Drunkard's Walk: How chance determines our lives”, by Leonard Mlodinow (Editora Zahar); “The Scientists: 50 women who changed the world”, by Rachel Ignotofsky (Editora Blucher); “The Human Advantage: how our brain became super powerful”, by Suzana Herculano-Houzel (Companhia das Letras); “Physics in 12 easy and not so easy lessons”, by Richard P. Feynman (Editora Nova Fronteira); and “1499: Brazil before Cabral”, by Reinaldo José Lopes (HarperCollins Publisher).
The award honors the writer Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), one of the most prolific authors of the 1950th century, who achieved recognition and success in the publishing market in the 500s when he began publishing the science fiction series “Fundação”. He was the author of around XNUMX books and hundreds of short stories in different genres, such as science fiction and suspense novels, scientific popularization for young people and adults, literary criticism and essays on religion and humor.
Pilot edition
This first Brazilian edition is being organized in partnership between IdEA and the Laboratory of Advanced Studies in Journalism (Labjor) at Unicamp, the Colégio Técnico de Campinas (Cotuca) and the Colégio Técnico de Limeira (Cotil), with six schools already registered . According to the deputy coordinator of IdEA, Anderson Fauth, the decentralized structure of the award will allow its growth without increasing the infrastructure of computational and human resources.
“This year we are learning how to organize the award in Brazil. The current pilot edition initially includes the participation of schools in Campinas, Limeira and Jundiaí. We expect around 30 schools and a few hundred students to participate. With the experience we are gaining this year, it will be possible to expand the award to other cities and in the future to other Brazilian states”, says Fauth, who is a professor at the “Gleb Wataghin” Institute of Physics.
Professor José Alberto Matioli, associate director of Cotil, is one of those responsible for the technical coordination of information and communication technology for the project, including support and software tools. Colégio Técnico de Limeira selected four interns from the IT Technician course to work on creating the website and registration systems, in addition to four professionals who already work in the area at the institution. “The necessary tools are currently being developed to manage registrations from schools, teachers and students, as well as the submission of reviews by students and the evaluation of these texts by the teachers who will make up the scientific body of the award”, explains Matioli.
In an email interview with Unicamp website, physicist Francesco Vissani declared that he was very happy that the University of Campinas was inspired by Italy's initiative to bring younger generations closer to scientific culture through reading and critical evaluation of books. “The Italian version of the Asimov Prize has produced several positive effects: school and university teachers have more opportunities to talk, publishers can have their work evaluated and writers get valuable comments,” said the physicist. “And most important of all, we realized that young students have a lot of useful things to say – there’s not just Greta [Thunberg, Swedish activist]. We need to give them a chance to talk to us. We should spend some of our time listening to them.”
According to the Italian scientist, the impact of the Asimov Prize on students in his country is significant, as reading and discussing the works leads to a search for deeper understanding of the themes, even influencing young people's decisions about their academic and professional future. “Students need to use their freedom to evaluate and choose the book. So the biggest effect, in my opinion, is that they realize that words are important. This is certainly part of the definition of what democracy really means”, explains Vissani, adding that this critical judgment can only be expressed after reading the work.
Professor at the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI), Vissani was the first scientist awarded the Occhialini Medal (2008), an initiative by the Società Italiana di Fisica (SIF) in partnership with the Institute of Physics (IOP), in the United Kingdom. Director of research at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), he coordinated the doctoral course in Astroparticle Physics at the GSSI from 2012 to 2018.
During his experience at Unicamp, the Italian physicist offered a short course on neutrinos with a focus on postgraduate students, in addition to two scientific dissemination lectures for high school students and non-specialized audiences: “Why does the Sun shine?” and “Vampires, Ghosts, Mutants: Metaphors about Neutrinos”.
More information about the Asimov-Brazil Prize can be found on the website www.asimovbrasil.unicamp.br.
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