[clarification needed] From early on he showed remarkable ability for mathematics, enchanting himself with geometry, which had a strong influence on his works.

Widely regarded as one of Brazil's most important theoretical physicists, Schenberg is best remembered for his contributions to astrophysics, particularly the theory of nuclear processes in the formation of supernova stars.

He provided the inspiration for the name of the so-called Urca process, a cycle of nuclear reactions in which a nucleus loses energy by absorbing an electron and then re-emitting a beta particle plus a neutrino-antineutrino pair, leading to the loss of internal supporting pressure and consequent collapse and explosion in the form of a supernova.

[3] In a paper published in 1958, Schönberg suggested to add a new idempotent to the Heisenberg algebra,[4] and this suggestion was taken up and expanded upon in the 1980s by Basil Hiley and his co-workers in their work on algebraic formulations of quantum mechanics;[1][3][5] this work was performed at Birkbeck College where Bohm had become professor of physics in the meantime.

[6] His work has been cited, together with that of Marcel Riesz, for its importance to Clifford algebras and mathematical physics in the proceedings of a workshop held in France in 1989 which had been dedicated to these two mathematicians.