It depends on what you mean by 'scientist'. The former president here [F.H. Cardoso] is a prestigious academician in the field of the 'social sciences'. You stumble on PHDs [of questionable quality] on every corner [economists, historians, sociologists, anthropologists, etc] since it is a social distinction here, and everybody pursues one [again, of questionable quality]. A great deal of congress people [lawyers, engineers, economists] have at least a Master´s degree. The former minister of Energy [Jose Goldenberg] is also a prestigious physicist [there have been some physicists in the several ministries]. But I´m not aware of any hard scientist in office [in charge of the policies].

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