The Universidade Estadual de Campinas — Unicamp — is consistently ranked among the top three universities in Latin America. Founded in 1966, it was designed from the ground up as a research university, and it shows: the campus has a serious, purposeful feel, with institutes and hospitals scattered across a large suburban site north of the city. The national synchrotron laboratory (LNLS), Brazil's most sophisticated physics facility, is on adjacent land.
The campus itself is open to visitors and worth a walk if you are interested in Brazilian modernist architecture or simply want to see what a major Brazilian research university looks like. The Cultural Centre (CCUEC) runs an active programme of free exhibitions and concerts, which is the most reliable way to find something actually happening on any given visit. The botanical gardens on the campus edge are small but pleasant. Campinas's identity as a technology and research hub is almost entirely explained by Unicamp's presence.