In 2012, the centenary of the discovery of cosmic rays by Victor Hess, it is appropriate to describe two independent projects, by Cesar Lattes and José Leite Lopes. These pioneers of elementary particle physics in Brazil were thesis advisors at the Brazilian Center of Physics Researches (CBPF), and professors at Rio de Janeiro National Faculty of Philosophy (FNFi). During the military regime of the 1960s and 1970s, a number of government decisions affected higher education institutions in Brazil. One of these determinations was specific to federal institutions of higher education in Rio de Janeiro that were grouped and incorporated to the UFRJ, and determined to transfer to the campus of the Fundão Island. These official acts, altering the teaching staff, and shifting the campuses of public universities have a long history. In the first part these Notes, we present some evidence of the attempts by Lattes in 1968 to install a research laboratory in Fundão Island. This is a little-known initiative because the files of Lattes are nowadays at UNICAMP. In the second part, we comment on the plans of José Leite Lopes at the Institute of Physics of the University of Brazil, current Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, and in particular of his proposal to build an accelerator that would be installed in the Fundão Island. The proposals of Leite Lopes are better known, as they have been documented in his books and interviews. In the final part of these Notes, we present some comments on the author's involvement with these episodes.
Cesar Lattes; Leite Lopes; UFRJ; Fundão Island; cosmic rays
