Sérgio Mascarenhas de Oliveira

Sérgio Mascarenhas de Oliveira (b. May 2, 1928, Rio de Janeiro) is a noted Brazilian experimental physicist, educator and scientific leader. Dr. Mascarenhas has been awarded the Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit in the categories of Commander (1995) and Great Cross (2002), and several national and international prizes including, more recently (April 2007) the Conrado Wessel Prize for General Science.

One of his main contributions to physics has been the discovery of bioelectrets, i.e., electrets as a property of biological materials such as bone and biopolymers. He used this knowledge to develop a new detector used in radiological dosimetry and to date human bones in archeological sites, such as shell mounds (sambaquis).