He was a member of the Academia Brasileira de Letras and is regarded as the father of radio broadcasting in Brazil.

He collected extensive ethnographic material and published them in the book Rondonia (1916),[3] which became a classic of anthropological literature of Brazil.

In 1926 he became director of the National Museum and began building the largest collection of scientific documentaries in Brazil.

On September 7, 1922, for the Independence Centenary International Exposition, American technicians from Westinghouse installed a radio antenna atop the Corcovado mountain, to present the technology to Brazil.

[2] Roquette-Pinto, envisioning the radio potential for educational uses, convinced the Brazilian Academy of Sciences to purchase the equipment.