Perfil

He was born in Milan, Italy, in 1938. His family emigrated to Brazil in 1949, where he became a naturalized Brazilian citizen and in 1960 graduated in Geology from the University of São Paulo (USP). In 1963 he specialized in Geochronology in Berkeley, USA, and completed his PhD in 1968 at USP itself. In 1971 he undertook a post-doctoral program at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium.

He spent his entire academic career at USP’s Institute of Geosciences, where he was Director (1987-91) and where he received the title of Professor Emeritus in 2010. He was one of the founders of the Center for Geochronological Research and his main research theme is geochronology applied to tectonic studies in South America.

The result of an MIT-USP project carried out in 1964-65, Cordani co-authored an article published in the journal Science in 1967, in which Brazil and West Africa were correlated using geochronology.  His result, which was particularly positive, led to the confirmation of the drift of the continents, ending the five-decade discussion about Wegener’s theory.

He was President of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS, 1987-1992) and President of the International Geological Congress in Rio de Janeiro, 2000.

He holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Aveiro (2000), an Honorary Professor at USP’s Institute of Advanced Studies (2020), and is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), as well as the Latin American academies, Lisbon, Cordoba, Buenos Aires, TWAS and the Institut de France.

He received many awards, including the José Bonifácio Gold Medal from the Brazilian Geology Society, the Grand Cross of the Order of Scientific Merit of Brazil, and the Commendation of the Academic Palms of France.