São José dos Campos

About São José dos Campos

São José dos Campos is a major city and the seat of the municipality of the same name in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. One of the leading industrial and research centers with emphasis in aerospace sciences in Latin America, the city is located in the Paraíba Valley, between the two most active production and consumption regions in the country; São Paulo (80 km (50 mi) from the city) and Rio de Janeiro (320 km (200 mi)). It is the main city of the Metropolitan Region of Vale do Paraíba e Litoral Norte. A native of São José dos Campos is called a joseense. Being the second most populous non-capital city in Brazil – behind Campinas – São José dos Campos lies in the middle of the Expanded Metropolitan Complex ("Complexo Metropolitano Expandido"), the first megalopolis in the Southern Hemisphere, with over thirty million inhabitants. The city's metro area also includes Greater São Paulo, Campinas, Santos and Sorocaba.

The municipality concentrates many major companies and industries, such as Embraer, Panasonic, Johnson & Johnson, Ericsson, Philips, General Motors, Petrobras, and Monsanto among others. São José dos Campos also holds relevant education and research institutions, such as ITA, INPE, CEMADEN, IEAv, IEA, IFI, UNESP, UNIFESP, DCTA, FATEC, UNIVAP and IP&D, holding a position that puts the city as the largest aerospatial complex in Latin America. The Technological park ("Parque Tecnológico de São José dos Campos"), the largest one in the country, is the only research institute in the world that includes all three top global plane production companies, Embraer, Boeing and Airbus.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.