Rate My Professor Álvaro Crósta

Álvaro Penteado Crósta is a Brazilian geologist and Full Professor at the Institute of Geosciences of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). He earned a bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of São Paulo in 1977, a master’s degree from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in 1982, and a Ph.D. from Imperial College London in 1990. He held visiting scholar or scientist positions at the Desert Research Institute of the University of Nevada at Reno (1995–1996), the Natural History Museum in Berlin and the University of Vienna (2010–2011), the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá (2018), and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA/Caltech (2018–2019).

Crósta served as Full Professor at UNICAMP’s Geosciences Institute from 2005 to 2023, including as Institute Director (2005–2010) and UNICAMP Vice-Rector (2013–2017). He retired in 2023 and was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus in 2026. He is a full member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences of the State of São Paulo. His research focuses on remote sensing, mineral exploration, and planetary geology, with particular expertise in Brazilian impact structures; he developed the Crosta Technique for detecting mineralization using multispectral and hyperspectral imagery. He has authored or co-authored numerous publications, including the book Remote Sensing and Spectral Geology (2009) and papers on impact structures such as Araguainha, Vista Alegre, and Serra da Cangalha. Crósta has held leadership roles including Head of Department and Graduate Program Coordinator at UNICAMP’s Institute of Geosciences, member of the CAPES Geosciences Area Commission (2002–2013, serving as Deputy Coordinator and Area Coordinator), and Associate Editor of Economic Geology and the Geological Society of America Bulletin. He received the Zeferino Vaz Academic Recognition Award from UNICAMP in 1994 and 2019, was elected Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists in 2010, and served on its Distinguished Lecturer Committee and as Regional Vice President for South America (2011–2013). He is a member of the Council of the Meteoritical Society (2023–2025) and has contributed to committees of the Meteoritical Society and the International Ocean Discovery Program.

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