The Graduate Course in Physics, mostly constituted by professors of the Department of Physics of the Federal University of Paraná and subordinate to the Sector of Exact Sciences of this university, had its first class in 1984, initially at the master's level. The Master in Physics quickly became an important instrument of professional training for undergraduates and professors of the UFPR itself as well as coming from other institutions of the state and the country. After ten years of a solid functioning of the master's course, we started the doctorate course.
With the master's degree in progress and the PhD in the initial phase, the main activity of the graduate program was in the training of masters and doctors as potential teachers for Brazilian public and private universities, where there was still a great need for teachers with post-graduated degree. For this reason, the priority was in basic training in traditional disciplines (quantum mechanics, electromagnetic theory and statistical mechanics). Over time, the range of performance of graduates has increased. As an example, we mentioned that several of our masters became part of the research team of the former Central Laboratory of Electrotechnology of COPEL (Companhia Paranaense de Energia Elétrica), whose function is the development of processes and materials of technological interest. The laboratory, currently named LACTEC, became a national reference in research related to the energy sector and received several prizes from FINEP in recent years for its performance.
In the evolution of the program, a transition can be observed between the graduate course begun in 1984, which originally included all areas of research and all the doctoral professors of the department as members of the faculty (from 1984 to 1991), and one a program that (after 1991) adopted criteria for become faculty member based on productivity. As a result, there was a decrease in the number of faculty members in the program and, as a consequence, there was a tendency for maturation of the original research lines.
Today the program maintains the basic training of the traditional disciplines, but also includes areas of action that are more applied and multidisciplinary, always guided by its lines of research. The PPGF at UFPR represented an effective contribution to the academic-scientific formation in the Department of Physics. The masters and PhD graduates of our program are currently professors or permanent researchers in other Brazilian and foreign institutions, to exemplify: LACTEC, UEPG, UTFPR, UDESC, UEM, PUC of Paraná, UFPE, UFAL, UFBA, UNICAMP, UFABC, various campuses the Federal Institute of Paraná (IFPR), INMETRO, Berkeley / CA, Uppsala / Sweden, among others.
Currently the program has its research activities well consolidated, offering the students a wide range of possibilities for their formation in their four major research areas (Atomic and Molecular Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, Fluids Physics and Plasmas and General Physics), where each area contains a variety of research lines and each line a variety of research projects. As a consequence, in the last CAPES four-year evaluation, our program consolidated note 6, obtaining a "very good" concept in all aspects of the evaluation.
The program has a stable teaching staff, where today 70% of its faculty members have a research productivity grant from CNPq, being 60% level 1. The faculty participate in national and international research networks, have laboratories that are part of the Laboratory Nanotechnology Center (LCNANO - UFPR) of the SISNANO network (National System of Laboratories in Nanotechnology) of the federal government with partner of NanoReg of the European Union. The faculty members have also been involved in the national and international scenario with participation in projects of international cooperation, invited lectures, organization of conferences and editorial board of international journals.