Geochemistry and Geotectonics

The Graduate Program on Geochemistry and Geotectonics of the University of São Paulo is one of the most important centers of knowledge generation and training of researchers on geological sciences in Brazil. The program has as its main characteristic the involvement of Master´s and PhD students in innovative research projects resulting in the production of high impact publications, with the consequent training on academic leadership within the international scientific scenario. This characteristic resulted from the professional performance of a group of permanent advising professors, who are notoriously qualified (21 professors holding CNPq´s productivity scholarships, 12 of which in level 1), seven members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, four members of the State of São Paulo Academy of Sciences and one member of the Science Academy of France), expressive success in securing funding through grant proposals and a diversified laboratorial infrastructure. Another striking feature of this Program is its international integration, characterized by a high proportion of international students (mean of 19.4% during the period of 2010 and 2012), 36 collaborative agreements and collaborative projects with foreign academic institutions, frequent exchange of students and researchers and an expressive collaboration of professors in the organization of scientific events and in the edition of international journals.

The Program has as its main objectives the formation of human resources and the generation and transmission of technical-scientific knowledge within the geological sciences, with an emphasis on the training of academic leaderships and on techniques supported by solid conceptual bases and an ample vision of scientific questions and their applications. The Master´s Program aims to provide students with an state-of-the-art theoretical and methodological training in addition to experience in the development of all stages of a research project, by utilizing the scientific infrastructure available in the Institute of Geosciences of the University of São Paulo.

The Doctoral Program aims to train researchers with experience in the development of innovative projects, with original approaches inserted into the international effort for the advancement of scientific knowledge. Projects currently developed in the Program present an emphasis on themes related to Geotectonics, Isotopic Geology, Structural Geology, Sedimentary Geology, Rock Geochemistry, Surface Geochemistry and Environmental Geochemistry, by stimulating their integration with other areas of the geological knowledge.

The Program contains two areas of concentration: Geotectonics and Geochemistry of Exogenous Processes. Geotectonics houses studies on the various scales of Earth´s internal and external dynamics in three lines of research: Structural Geology and Tectonicphysics,  Crustal Evolution and Basin Evolution.

The area of concentration on Geochemistry of Exogenous Processes contains four lines of research:  Tropical Pedogenesis, Geochemistry of Elements of Environmental and Metalogenetic interests, Isotopic  geochemistry applied to Environmental Studies and to Karst Systems.

Scientific projects developed in the two areas of concentration are frequently multidiscplinary and their conduction is supported by the use of modern analytical techniques, available in the equipment and laboratorial infrastructure of the Institute of Geociences of USP, which include: Susceptibility Anisotropy and Remnant Magnetics, Structural Analysis by means of Electron Backscattering Difraction, Strucutral Analysis by Digital Fotogrametric Restitution, Image Analysis (Optical and Electron Microscopy), Gama Spectrometry and Luminescence, as well as a wide ensemble of laboratories of Isotopic Geoogy and Geocronologia which employ K/Ar, Rb/Sr, Sm/Nd, Pb/Pb, stable isotopes and U/Pb (TIMS< LA-ICP-MS and SHRIMP).