Considered as one of the most important educators and researchers in physics in Brazil, along with Cesar Lattes, José Leite Lopes and Mario Schenberg, Damy was born in Campinas, São Paulo, in 1914, the son of Harald Egydio de Souza Santos a photographer, and Maria Luiza Damy de Souza Santos.
He did his secondary studies in the State Gymnasium (later to be called Colégio Culto à Ciência) and was a keen student of sciences, particularly physics and chemistry.
In England he became friends with Edmundo Barbosa da Silva, Oxford University student and future colleague in the Atomic Energy Commission of the Brazilian National Research Council.
Returning once again to Brazil, Damy accepted an assistant professorship at the Department of Physics of USP, and helped install there in 1950 a betatron, the first particle accelerator operating in Latin America.
[2] Damy was one of the greatest scientific leaders in Brazil, helping to found many important research and educational institutions in his area.