OSWALDO SALA: CIENTISTA, EDUCADOR E EXEMPLO

OSWALDO SALA: SCIENTIST, EDUCATOR AND EXAMPLE. Oswaldo Sala dedicated nearly six decades to the development of vibrational spectroscopy in Brazil and Latin America. He was a member of Hans Stammreich’s group when innovative approaches to Raman spectroscopy instrumentation allowed the investigation of intensely colored and photo-sensitive compounds, consolidating the international reputation of the Laboratory of Molecular Spectroscopy in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Stammreich’s death in 1969 coincided with a period of several new technologies being introduced in Raman spectroscopy and the laboratory, then led by Oswaldo Sala, received the first laser-Raman spectrometer in Latin America. With this equipment, the vibronic nature of inelastic light scattering could be explored in studies on the resonance Raman effect and, a few years later, chemical species adsorbed on roughed metal electrodes were investigated using the recently discovered surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Infrared absorption spectroscopy of molecules trapped in a solid matrix of inert gas at cryogenic temperatures were also introduced by O. Sala, so was high resolution spectroscopy of gases. Here, a detailed description of his career as scientist and educator is given.