Ruy Luís Gomes was a Portuguese

Portuguese people

The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

 mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

 and founder os the Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute

Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute

The Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar - ICBAS is a medical school , veterinary sciences school and also a school of marine biology, located in Porto, Portugal...

. He was one of the great intellectual figures during the 20th century in Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

.

His father, the Republican

Portuguese Republican Party

The Portuguese Republican Party was a Portuguese political party formed during the late years of monarchy that proposed and conducted the substitution of the Constitutional Monarchy by the Portuguese First Republic....

 António Luís Gomes (1863-1961), had been a government minister and ambassador to Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 during the Portuguese First Republic

Portuguese First Republic

The Portuguese First Republic spans a complex 16 year period in the history of Portugal, between the end of the period of constitutional monarchy marked by the 5 October 1910 revolution and the 28 May coup d'état of 1926...

; his mother was Maria José Medeiros de Oliveira. He received a license in mathematics from the University of Coimbra and took his doctorate in 1928. In 1929 he became a professor in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto

University of Porto

The University of Porto is a Portuguese public university located in Porto, and founded 22 March 1911. It is the largest Portuguese university by number of enrolled students and has one of the most noted research outputs in Portugal...

. He was one of the founders of the journal Portugaliae Mathematica

Portugaliae Mathematica

Portugaliae Mathematica is a peer-reviewed journal of the Portuguese Mathematical Society. It has a wide range scope publishing high level research papers in all domains of Mathematics...

, in 1937.

Ruy Luís Gomes was a sympathizer of the Portuguese Communist Party

Portuguese Communist Party

The Portuguese Communist Party is a major left-wing political party in Portugal. It is a Marxist-Leninist party, and its organization is based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself to be patriotic and internationalist....

, despite never having been a member of the party. In 1951, he was chosen to be the communist presidential candidate, against the candidate of the regime, General Francisco Craveiro Lopes

Francisco Craveiro Lopes

Francisco Higino Craveiro Lopes da Silva de Tovero , 6th Viscount de Molenos-Craveiro, GCTE, ComC, GCA, , was a Portuguese politician and military man...

, and the moderate opposition candidate, Admiral Manuel Quintão Meireles

Manuel Quintão Meireles

Manuel Quintão Meireles was a Portuguese Navy officer and a politician. He initially supported the Military Dictatorship, after the 28 May 1926 revolution, but later moved to the Democratic Opposition field...

. His candidature was invalidated by the Supreme Court of Justice

Portuguese Supreme Court of Justice

Portuguese Supreme Court of Justice is the highest court of law in Portugal without prejudice to the jurisdiction of the Portuguese Constitutional Court.The President of the Supreme Court of Justice is elected by and among the members of the court....

 for political reasons, since he was considered a communist. He served two prison terms for political activities, once in the early 1940s and again in 1957-58. However, he continued to be a staunch oppositionist, being forced to exile, first in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 from 1958 to 1962, where he taught at the Universidad Nacional del Sur in Bahía Blanca

Bahía Blanca

Bahía Blanca is a city located in the south-west of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and seat of government of Bahía Blanca Partido. It has a population of 274,509 inhabitants according to the...

, and then in Brazil from 1962 to 1974, teaching at the Federal University of Pernambuco

Federal University of Pernambuco

The Federal University of Pernambuco is a public university located in Recife, Brazil, and established in 1946. UFPE has 70 undergraduate courses and 175 postgraduate courses. As of 2007, UFPE had near 35,000 students and about 2,000 professors. The university has three campuses: Recife, Vitória...

. He returned to Portugal following the Carnation Revolution

Carnation Revolution

The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...

 of 25 April 1974. He arrived back on 10 June 1974, and then served as a member of the Council of State and as rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...

of the University of Porto (1974-75).