To:         CNPq
From:    Michael Mislove
Re:        Support of Ruy de Quieroz's research program

Dear Colleagues,
  I am writing you on behalf of Professor Ruy de Quieroz. I understand that
recently CNPq has decided not to renew Professor de Quieroz's research
support, citing in particular that "there were not enough journal papers
with high impact in the Journal Citations Records/ISI in the last 3 years".
I believe this judgement does not take appropriate count of Professor de
Quieroz's publications over the period cited; indeed, he has published one
paper in the "Archive for Mathematical Logic", and another in the "Bulletin
of the Section of Logic (Lodz)", as well as a number of book chapters. In
addition, he has edited volumes in Annals of Pure and Applied Logic (2005),
Theoretical Computer Science (Apr 2006, Nov 2006), Electronic Notes in
Theoretical Computer Science (2003-2006) and Information & Computation (to
appear). It is this last activity that I wish to address in more detail.
  All of the journals listed - both those in which he has published his own
papers, and those for which he has edited special issues, are leaders in
their areas. Indeed, TCS and I&C are universally regarded as the two leading
journals in the area they represent, and, likewise, APAL occupies a top rank
among the journals in logic. While it is not a journal, ENTCS is an
electronic series devoted to publishing conference proceedings. It is a
series I founded in 1995 to provide an alternative to the rather expensive
print media, occupied principally by Springer's LNCS series. I am familiar
with Ruy's work in organizing the annual WoLLIC conference series because it
has become a regular publisher in ENTCS. I regard WoLLIC as one of the
leading conferences that publishes with ENTCS, and I view it as on a par
with the leading conferences in logic and its applications to computer
science. Although ENTCS is not rated by ISI (for reasons I don't fully
understand), there is still ample evidence of its quality. For example,
historically 15% of the conferences that publish with us go on to publish a
selection of their papers as a special issue of TCS. Given the high quality
of TCS, it is clear that having such a representation within the conferences
that publish in ENTCS is an indication of its quality as well. Further,
ENTCS was founded as an electronic companion to TCS, and it has recently
been elevated from its own, stand-alone platform to now being published on
ScienceDirect, Elsevier's main platform for publication of electronic media.
At the same time, ENTCS's mandate has been broadened, so that it is now
officially an electronic companion to all of the journals that Elsevier
publishes in theoretical computer science: TCS, I&C, Journal of Computer
Science and Systems, and Information Processing Letters. These are leading
journals in the area whose quality I believe is a direct reflection on the
quality of ENTCS.
  I hope these comments will convince you to reexamine Professor de
Quieroz's application and reinstate his research support. I believe the
points I have made make a strong case for the high quality of Professor
Quieroz's publications over the 2003-2006 period. I am familiar with CNPq
from a series of two workshops that were held in the 1990s - the first in
Rio de Janeiro and the second in New Orleans (which I hosted at Tulane). The
aim of these workshops was to foster research collaborations between
computer science researchers in the US and in Brazil. Through them I learned
first hand of the research going on in Brazil in CS, and I feel comfortable
saying that Professor de Quieroz ranks among the leading researchers in
Brazil. He is internationally recognized as a leader of the first rank in
logic and computer science. Brazil would lose one of its most prominent and
highly regarded scholars if his research activities were to lessen - I urge
you to do everything you can to support his research. He has a remarkable
record of publications of his own research, of conference organization work
for which he also is noted, and for the work he does in editing special
issues of major journals. All of this enhances Brazil's research reputation
at the same time it encourages young Brazilian faculty and graduate students
to pursue their research seriously. I hope you agree that this is important
work that deserves your support.
  Thank you for considering the points I have raised.
  Best regards,
  Mike Mislove

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Professor Michael Mislove        Phone: +1 504 862-3441
Managing Editor, ENTCS           FAX:     +1 504 865-5063
Department of Mathematics
Tulane University                      URL: http://www.entcs.org
New Orleans, LA 70118 USA
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