The University Council (Consu) unanimously approved, this Tuesday morning (1/8), the granting of the title of Professor Emeritus at Unicamp to the economist Wilson Suzigan.
The concession proposal was signed by the special committee composed of professors Miguel Juan Bacic (president), Clélio Campolina Diniz and Itala Maria Loffredo D´Ottaviano and presented by the Department of Scientific and Technological Policy (DPCT) of the Institute of Geosciences (IG). According to the commission's opinion, Suzigan is responsible for highly relevant works on economic history, industrial politics and economics, and innovation in Brazil.
Suzigan joined Unicamp's Institute of Economics (IE) in 1985, where he remained until his retirement in 1998. The researcher continued participating in IE's teaching, research and extension activities as a collaborating professor until 2004, when he transferred to DPCT , of which he was part until 2022.
Professor, researcher and advisor, Suzigan received, in 2007, the title of Commander of the National Order of Scientific Merit, a distinction awarded by the Presidency of the Republic.
The DPCT report cites economist Flávio Saes, for whom Suzigan “is well known among historians and economists” for the relevance of his vast work, which covers not only themes of economic history – especially Brazilian industrialization – but also the Brazilian economy – mainly industrial policy, technological innovation, local production arrangements, university-industry relations, among others. “There is a consensus in the academic community about the seriousness and competence of Wilson Suzigan as a researcher of our history and our economy,” says the colleague.
“For me, it was a great honor to join this committee,” said Bacic. “Professor Suzigan is a highly respected and beloved professional, both at IE and IG,” he added. “He had a huge contribution to the group that thinks about the country’s development and the role of teaching and research institutions in this development.”
Bacic recalled a quote made by Diniz, former dean of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and former minister of Science and Technology. According to Bacic, the colleague even issued a warning. “This is a well-deserved title. It is very important to recognize the importance of Professor Suzigan”, Diniz was quoted as saying.
Suzigan was born in Americana, in the Metropolitan Region of Campinas (RMC), on February 26, 1942. Her academic career began in 1961, in the undergraduate course in Economic Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas (PUC-Campinas). He was then a student in the first master's class in Economics in Brazil, at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) Postgraduate School of Economics in Rio de Janeiro and defended, in 1968, his dissertation, entitled “The Process of Replacement of Imports in Brazil”.
Suzigan completed her doctorate at the University of London, from 1981 to 1984, when she defended her doctoral thesis “Investment in the manufacturing industry in Brazil, 1869-1939”. After his master's degree, and until 1984, he was a career employee at the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea), a body where he worked as a researcher and coordinator of the economic research area.
“The Institute of Economics not only supports the granting of the title but also embraces this idea”, said the director of IE, professor André Biancarelli. “Professor Suzigan has made an enormous contribution to vital issues for the country, carrying out pioneering studies on the history of the economy, including the construction of data”, said Biancarelli. “In addition, he has relevant work on industrial and innovation policy. Therefore, IE enthusiastically welcomes this proposal”, he concluded.
According to the opinion of the special committee, the breadth of Suzigan's academic contribution is manifested in her publications and in her postgraduate orientations carried out at Unicamp. The researcher published 69 academic articles in high-profile Brazilian and international journals, published and organized 17 reference books and published 38 book chapters.
As a supervisor, he supervised 27 doctoral theses, 18 master's theses and 42 scientific initiation projects, all at Unicamp. As an editor of academic journals, Suzigan is a member of the editorial board of several of them, but he played a prominent role in the implementation and editing of two reference journals in the Brazilian debate. One of them is the magazine Economy, from the National Association of Postgraduate Centers in Economics (Anpec), a magazine whose creation, in 1999, was the responsibility of Suzigan. The researcher held the position of editor of the publication until 2001.
The other publication is Brazilian Magazine of Inovação, created and implemented by Suzigan in 2002 and in which he plays the role of editor to this day. The journal, hosted at IG since 2006, is one of the main indexed journals in the area of innovation studies in Brazil.
The dean of Unicamp, professor Antonio José de Almeida Meirelles – who completed his doctorate in Economic Science at IE – said he can attest to the importance of Suzigan's contribution. “Especially in this period we are living in, of resuming the direction of development, science and technology are fundamental for the construction of an industrial and innovation policy”, said the rector.
For Meirelles, both the IE and the DPCT fulfill the important role of thinking about the history of scientific and technological policy in Brazil. “And thinking about a development economy synthesizes the role of the two departments in our University”, he concluded.
