Scientific research in the biosciences in São Paulo: beyond institutions

Abstract

During the first half of the twentieth century, the creation of scientific institutes was a landmark in the history of the State of São Paulo, given their innovative role and their relation to the region's industrial and economic development. These institutions encompassed a number of basic and applied areas and fostered pioneering lines of research. The transformations that occurred in the political arena during the latter half of the century, exacerbated by the lack of continuity in policies regarding scientific and technological management, brought the progressive deterioration and virtual stagnation of research in most São Paulo institutes. Under my guidance, undergraduate students of biology who were enrolled in a course in the history of science conducted interviews with researchers who had lived through these changes. This oral history approach documents the perceptions of this community of scientific researchers regarding their own achievements and the paths their institutes have followed in the last decades.