Manuel Cruz, Professor of the Department of Mathematics (DMA) and Coordinator of the Mathematical Engineering Laboratory (LEMA), was elected member of the Executive Board of the European Service Network of Mathematics for Industry and Innovation (EU-MATHS-IN).
The election took place at a meeting in Prague on December 10th. This choice is a European recognition of the work done by the Portuguese Network for Industry and Innovation (PT-MATHS-IN).
Manuel Cruz was the first Portuguese to be elected for the Executive Board of this European network. The LEMA coordinator notes that this election “brings even more responsibility to the work that has been developed in the consolidation of the role of mathematics in the industry, first at local level with LEMA, national level with PT-MATHS-IN and now at European level. In practice, we are talking about coordinating the activities of 17 national networks, each hosting several very heterogeneous research centers.”
He adds: “The undisputed quality of the other board members, as well as the vote of confidence given by the other European networks to this application, materialized in this election, give to this mandate a great honor, but also an added responsibility. This result would not be possible without an entire community, local and national, to which I am proud to belong.”
The EU-MATHS-IN facilitates the exchange of information between all the stakeholders interested in this area, at a European level. The main goal of the European network is to promote a greater impact of mathematics on innovation and technology. It is currently made up of 17 national networks, with Portugal represented by PT-MATHS-IN. “In practice each of the national networks has as its members the main research centers which work in industrial mathematics, research and transfer mathematical technology to the industry. That makes almost the entire European industrial mathematics community interconnected through this European network. In addition, the EU-MATHS-IN develops a very close activity with the European industry, in order to capture the attention of the main decision-makers of this field, who influence the technological development of Europe”, explained Manuel Cruz.
This core-team is currently composed of companies such as ATOS, Dassault Aviation, EcoMT, Ernst & Young, Michelin, Nors, Shell or Siemens, and the interest of several other European companies is also being analyzed.