He graduated in electronic engineering at the Aeronautics Technology Institute of (ITA in the Portuguese acronym). He took a master’s degree and a doctorate at Unicamp’s Gleb Wataghin Physics Institute. He has been a professor at the Unicamp’s Physics Institute since 1982. Presently is a full professor at the Quantum Electronics Department.
Brito Cruz is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the Ordre des Palmes Academiques de France, the Order of the Scientific Merit from the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Order of the British Empire, Honorary (OBE) in 2015.
Brito Cruz was a visiting researcher at the Quantum Optics Laboratory at the Universitá di Roma, at the Femtosecond Research Laboratory at the Universitè Pierre et Marie Curie, and a resident researcher at the AT&T’s Bell Laboratories, in Holmdel, New Jersey and in Murray Hill, NJ. At Unicamp he was the Director of Unicamp’s Physics Institute from 1991 to 1994 and from 1998 to 2002; Pro-rector for Research from 1994 to 1998, and Rector of the university from 2002 to 2005. He was the President of FAPESP from 1996 to 2002.