In this article, we overview the life and works of the Brazilian engineer Luiz Freire, with a special focus on his well known skills as a sower of scientific vocations and his interest in cosmic rays. In the appendix, we reproduce his 1938 paper on cosmic rays, which was published in the Brazilian daily newspaper Diário de Pernambuco, possibly the first article on the subject published in the Brazilian press.
Luiz Freire; cosmic rays; history of physics; history of physics in Brazil
