The University of Campinas (Portuguese: Universidade Estadual de Campinas, UNICAMP or Unicamp) is a public research university in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, with its main campus located in the Barão Geraldo district of Campinas and additional campuses in Limeira and Piracicaba. In the early 1960s the Government of the State of São Paulo had plans to open a new research center in the interior of the state to promote development and industrialization in the region, and commissioned Zeferino Vaz, a former dean of the University of São Paulo's School of Medicine in Ribeirão Preto to organize it. In parallel, a medical school was being planned in Campinas, a demand from the local population that dated from the 1940's. The new university was created by law in December 28, 1962, but until effective implementation begun in 1966, only the medical school operated, in the building of the Maternity of Campinas.