Oswaldo Frota-Pessoa (March 30, 1917 – March 24, 2010) was a noted Brazilian physician, biologist and geneticist. Oswaldo Frota-Pessoa was born in Rio de Janeiro, where he did all his studies, first in natural history at the Federal District University (currently the State University of Rio de Janeiro), graduating in 1938; and subsequently medicine at the National School of Medicine of University of Brazil, graduating in 1941. He got his doctoral degree at the same school, in 1953 and soon afterwards went abroad on a scholarship for post-doctoral studies at Columbia University, in New York City, from 1953 to 1955. His teaching and research professional career began in 1942, when he accepted a position of assistant professor at the School of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of the Federal U