The article analyzes the process of setting up the Institute of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Bahia during 1960-1968. The focus is on the various interests, representations, articulations, convictions, and conflicts in which a good share of the participants were involved. On the one hand, Martha Dantas, Arlete Cerqueira Lima, and Ramiro Porto Alegre's original project - sponsored by Rector Edgard Santos and embraced by Rubens Lintz, Omar Catunda, and Leopoldo Nachbin - was challenged by professors holding chairs in engineering at the Polytechnical School and the School of Philosophy, represented by Bautista Vidal. On the other, students at the Polytechnical School did not engage in the scientific research activities conducted at the Institute, which captured the interest only of students from the School of Philosophy.
science institutions; mathematics; contemporaneous history; Brazil
