| Roberto Simonsen | |
| Birth Date: | 18 February 1889 |
| Birth Place: | Santos, São Paulo, Empire of Brazil |
| Death Place: | Rio de Janeiro, Federal District, Brazil |
| Occupation: | Industrialist, engineer, writer, politician |
| Alma Mater: | Polytechnic School of São Paulo |
Roberto Cochrane Simonsen (18 February 1889 - 25 May 1948) was a Brazilian engineer, industrialist, scholar and politician.
Simonsen was born in Santos, the son of Sidney Martin Simonsen. His mother's family, the Cochranes, are a famous Scottish family that have had many prominent members throughout the history of Brazil.
Simonsen studied in Santos and in São Paulo, where he attended the Anglo-Brazilian College and the Polytechnic School of São Paulo. He obtained a degree in engineering, and commenced his career with the Southern Brazil Railway. At the age of 24, he founded the Companhia Construtora de Santos. The next decade was filled with intense commercial activity, and the business expanded its activities across Brazil.
In 1932, he joined the Constitutionalist Revolution of São Paulo. His involvement was crucial to the creation of the first School of Sociology and Politics in Brazil. Here he started teaching the economic history of Brazil, and his work led to the writing of several important books on the subject. In 1934, he was elected federal deputy for São Paulo. This continued after 1945, when he was elected to the Senate.
He was a member of many domestic and foreign institutions, among them a number of engineering, history and geography societies. He belonged to the Academia Paulista de Letras; the Portuguese Academy of History; the National Geographic Society; and the Royal Geographic Society of London.
In 1945, he became the second occupant of chair 3 of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, succeeding Filinto de Almeida. He was received by academic José Carlos de Macedo Soares in October 1946. He died in the main hall of the Brazilian Academy of Letters in May 1948, at an official reception for the visiting Belgian Prime Minister Paul van Zeeland.[1]