Oscar Sala

Oscar Sala ( born March 26, 1922 in Milan, † January 2, 2010 in São Paulo) was an Italian- Brazilian experimental particle and nuclear physicists.

Sala made ​​in 1943 with a degree in physics at the University of São Paulo, where he was taught by Gleb Wataghin and Giuseppe Occhialini. The group dealt with at the time of experimental particle physics to cosmic rays. He became an assistant to Marcelo Damy de Souza Santos (1914-2009) and later a professor at the Institute of Physics of the University of São Paulo (Instituto de Física da Universidade de São Paulo). In 1946 he went as a Rockefeller Fellow in the USA at the University of Illinois and then to the University of Wisconsin - Madison. There he met the construction of particle accelerators for nuclear research and built after returning to São Paulo a large Van de Graaff generator and later a Pelletron. 1970 to 1979 and 1983 to 1987, he headed the department of nuclear physics.

He was a founder of the FAPESP Foundation ( Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo), which sponsored the research in the state of São Paulo, and from 1959 to 1965 whose scientific director. He was also a member of the Academia Brasileira de Ciências ( Brazilian Academy of Sciences), the Third World Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was president of the Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência ( Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science ). 1968 to 1971 he was president of the Sociedade Brasileira de Física ( Brazilian Physical Society ).