The Department of Physics of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters was started with two imminent Italian physicists, Gleb Wataghin and Giuseppe Occhialini, who specialized in researching cosmic radiation.
He was contemporary with a brilliant generation of young Brazilian physicians, such as César Lattes, José Leite Lopes, Mário Schenberg, Roberto Salmeron, Marcelo Damy de Souza Santos and Jayme Tiomno.
Soon after graduation, he was hired as a teaching assistant by the Chair of General and Experimental Physics, led by Prof. Marcelo Damy de Souza Santos.
Upon his return to Brazil, Sala was responsible for installing and coordinating research efforts based on a large electrostatic Van de Graaff generator.
As a scientific leader, Dr. Oscar Sala was one of the founders and a scientific director (1959–1965) with the Foundation for Support of Research of the State of São Paulo (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) and president of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência).