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Academic background, research, teaching, and service. Updated October 24, 2026.

Contact Information

Name Leon Denis da Silva
Professional Title Mathematician · UFRPE
Email leon.silva@ufrpe.br
Location Recife, Pernambuco
Website https://ldsufrpe.github.io

Professional Summary

Professor of Mathematics at UFRPE since 2011. Research in discrete geometry, scientific computing, symmetry reduction, and quantum algorithms. Full curriculum on Lattes.

Experience

  • 2011 - present
    Professor of Mathematics
    Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE)
    Full-time appointment with exclusive dedication.
  • 2019 - 2021
    Mathematics Area Supervisor
    Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE)
  • Coordinator of the proposal for an Academic Master’s Program in Applied Mathematics
    Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE)
  • Deputy Coordinator, Regional 03
    Brazilian Society of Applied and Computational Mathematics (SBMAC)

Education

  • 2015 - 2019
    Ph.D.
    Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE)
    Computer Science
    • Thesis: A discrete exterior calculus approach to quantum transport on surfaces.
    • Advisor: Sílvio de Barros Melo. Co-advisor: Antonio Murilo Santos Macêdo.
  • 2008 - 2010
    Master’s degree
    Federal University of Ceará (UFC)
    Mathematics
    • Dissertation: Estimativa de Autovalores para Subvariedades de Curvatura Média Localmente Limitadas em N x R.
    • Advisor: Gregório Pacelli Feitosa Bessa.
  • 2003 - 2007
    Teaching degree (Licenciatura)
    Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE)
    Mathematics
  •
    Specialization
    SENAI CIMATEC
    Quantum Computing
    • iNOVA Pós program, with practical work on quantum computers and projects directed toward industry and innovation.

Projects

  • 2025 - present
    Variational Quantum Circuits: Architecture, Computability, Training, and Applications

    Research team member at the UFPE Informatics Center.

  • 2024 - present
    Collaborative theorem proving with large language models

    Project coordinator at UFRPE.

  • 2021 - present
    Quantum state preparation algorithms

    Project coordinator at UFRPE. Financial support from FACEPE.

  • 2021 - 2022
    PyMat — Python for Mathematics

    Coordinator of an extension project connecting programming, mathematics, and science.

Software and Books

PySymmetry: Source code. Sage/Python framework for symmetry reduction, developed with Marcelo P. Santos.
Qclib: Source code. Contributor to a Qiskit-based quantum computing library focused on quantum state preparation.
Elementos de Computação Matemática com SageMath: Co-authored with Marcelo Pedro dos Santos and Ricardo Nunes Machado Júnior. Sociedade Brasileira de Matemática, 2019.

Teaching and Supervision

Undergraduate teaching: Mathematics, computer science, engineering, physics, economics, and administration at UFRPE.
Doctoral co-supervision: Quantum machine learning for quantum state preparation at UFPE.
Student supervision: Sparse quantum state preparation and matrix decompositions in quantum computing.

Academic Interests

Discrete Geometry and Applied Topology: Discrete exterior calculus and structure-preserving numerical methods., Discrete curvature in complex networks.
Symmetry and Scientific Computing: Representation theory and symmetry reduction of linear systems., Symbolic computation and mathematical software with SageMath and Python.
Quantum Computing: Quantum state preparation and quantum algorithms., Variational quantum circuits and molecular point-group symmetries.