Interviewer: Tyler Priest

Affiliation: University of Houston

Wagner Freire was born and raised in Brazil, where he completed five years of civil and nuclear engineering education in 1957. After graduation, Freire quickly joined up with Petrobras, the country’s national oil company, starting out by progressing through a two-year course in the nascent field of petroleum geology. From that point, in 1960, Freire served in roles pertaining to both surface geology and seismic acquisition and mapping. In 1968, Freire was appointed chief geophysicist for Petrobras, where he pushed for the adoption of advanced seismic tools and data processing capacity. He oversaw the firm’s first digital seismic survey, shot in the Espirito Santo basin; he also managed the company’s later concerted efforts in the Campos Basin, which yielded major finds in the 1970s and 1980s.