Marcelo Damy

Marcelo de Souza Santos Damy (* July 14, 1914 in Campinas, † 14 July 2009) was a Brazilian experimental nuclear physicist.

De Souza Santos studied from 1933 at the Polytechnic Institute in Sao Paulo electrical engineering, but moved under the influence of Gleb Wataghin at the University of Sao Paulo to physics. After graduation, he went to William Lawrence Bragg at the University of Cambridge and then worked in the Second World War to the sonar research for the Brazilian Navy. In 1945 he went with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to the University of Illinois at Donald William Kerst, inventor of the betatron. After his return he became an assistant professor in Sao Paulo and installed there even a betatron, the first particle accelerator in Latin America. He was also involved in the commissioning of the first nuclear reactor in Latin America in Brazil - the IEA -R1 research reactor at the University of Sao Paulo, which was a critical first in 1957 and until today is operating. He was one of the founders of the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research ( IPEN ) in Brazil and was its director from 1956 to 1961 (then called IEA ). 1961 to 1964 he was president of the National Nuclear Energy Commission ( CNEN ) in Brazil. 1968 he retired from the University of Sao Paulo, but retired relied on the physics faculty of the newly founded University of Campinas. He was also more active in research and was a professor of nuclear physics at the Catholic University in Rio.

During his time at Wataghin he also conducted research on Cosmic cosmic radiation.

He was a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.