Argentines have won five Nobel Prizes since 1905. The following is a complete list of Nobel laureates from Argentina:
Year | Image | Laureate | Born | Died | Field | Citation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1936 | Carlos Saavedra Lamas | 1 November 1878 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 5 May 1959 Buenos Aires, Argentina | Peace | "for his role as father of the Argentine Antiwar Pact of 1933, which he also used as a means to mediate peace between Paraguay and Bolivia in 1935." [1] | |
1947 | Bernardo Houssay | 10 April 1887 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 21 September 1971 Buenos Aires, Argentina | Physiology or Medicine | "for his discovery of the part played by the hormone of the anterior pituitary lobe in the metabolism of sugar." [2] (awarded together with American biochemists Carl Ferdinand Cori and German biologist Gerty Theresa Cori née Radnitz) | |
1970 | Luis Federico Leloir | 6 September 1906 Paris, France | 2 December 1987 Buenos Aires, Argentina | Chemistry | "for his discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates." [3] | |
1980 | Adolfo Pérez Esquivel | 26 November 1931 Buenos Aires, Argentina | Peace | "for being a source of inspiration to repressed people, especially in Latin America." [4] | ||
1984 | César Milstein | 8 October 1927 Bahía Blanca, Argentina | 24 March 2002 Cambridge, United Kingdom | Medicine | "for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies" [5] (awarded together with Danish immunologist Niels K. Jerne and German biologist Georges J. F. Köhler) |
Image | Laureate | Born | Died | Years Nominated | Citation | Nominator(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chemistry | ||||||
Luis Federico Leloir | 6 September 1906 Paris, France | 2 December 1987 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1958, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970 | [6] | 36 nominators | |
Physiology or Medicine | ||||||
Ángel Roffo | 30 December 1882 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 23 July 1947 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1927, 1937, 1940 | "for his clinical and experimental studies on cancer. [7] |
| |
Bernardo Houssay | 10 April 1887 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 21 September 1971 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1931, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1947, 1948 | "for the discovery of the physiological role of the anterior hypophysis in carbohydrate metabolism and diabetes, work on heart sounds, and the relation of the kidney to hypertension." [8] | 46 nominators | |
Literature | ||||||
Manuel Gálvez | 18 July 1882 Paraná, Entre Ríos, Argentina | 14 November 1962 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1932, 1933, 1934, 1951, 1952 | [9] | ||
Carlos María Ocantos Ziegler | 1860 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1949 Madrid, Spain | 1933, 1943 | [10] |
| |
Enrique Rodríguez Larreta | 4 March 1875 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 6 July 1961 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1942, 1943, 1944, 1950 | [11] | ||
María Raquel Adler | ca. 1900 Argentine Sea | 28 July 1974 Bernal, Argentina | 1959, 1965 | [12] |
| |
Jorge Luis Borges | 24 August 1899 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 14 June 1986 Geneva, Switzerland | 1956, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971 | [13] | 26 nominators | |
Victoria Ocampo | 7 April 1890 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 27 January 1979 Béccar, Argentina | 1970 | [14] | Miguel Alfredo Olivera (1922–2008) | |
Peace | ||||||
Ángela de Oliveira Cézar de Costa | ca. 1860 Gualeguaychú, Entre Ríos, Argentina | 25 June 1940 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1910, 1911 | "for her efforts to end the conflict between Argentina and Chile." [15] |
| |
Estanislao Zeballos | 27 July 1854 Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina | 4 October 1923 Liverpool, United Kingdom | 1912, 1920, 1922, 1923 | 7 nominators | ||
Luis María Drago | 6 May 1859 Mercedes, Argentina | 9 June 1921 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1914 | "for having initiated the Drago Doctrine that opposed forcible collection of debts in any South American republic through military intervention." [16] | Ernesto Bosch (1863–1951) | |
Carlos Melo | 1926 | Alejandro Mereira (?) | ||||
Carlos Saavedra Lamas | 1 November 1878 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 5 May 1959 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1935, 1936 | "for having drafted Antiwar Pact of 1934 as a means to secure an armistice in the Gran Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay, condemning all forms of aggressive war, and any territorial change not effected by peaceful means was not to be recognized." [17] | 11 nominators | |
Juan Perón | 8 October 1895 Lobos, Argentina | 1 July 1974 Olivos, Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1949 | [18] |
| |
Eva Perón | 7 May 1919 Los Toldos, Argentina | 26 July 1952 Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1949 | [19] | Virgilio Filippo (?) |
Carl Ferdinand Cori, ForMemRS was a Czech-American biochemist and pharmacologist. He, together with his wife Gerty Cori and Argentine physiologist Bernardo Houssay, received a Nobel Prize in 1947 for their discovery of how the glucose derivative glycogen is broken down and resynthesized in the body for use as a store and source of energy. In 2004, both Coris were designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark in recognition of their work that elucidated carbohydrate metabolism.
Bernardo Alberto Houssay was an Argentine physiologist. Houssay was a co-recipient of the 1947 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering the role played by pituitary hormones in regulating the amount of glucose in animals, sharing the prize with Carl Ferdinand Cori and Gerty Cori. He is the first Latin American Nobel laureate in the sciences.
Carlos Saavedra Lamas was an Argentine academic and politician, and in 1936, the first Latin American Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
Luis Federico Leloir was an Argentine physician and biochemist who received the 1970 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the metabolic pathways by which carbohydrates are synthesized and converted into energy in the body. Although born in France, Leloir received the majority of his education at the University of Buenos Aires and was director of the private research group Fundación Instituto Campomar until his death in 1987. His research into sugar nucleotides, carbohydrate metabolism, and renal hypertension garnered international attention and led to significant progress in understanding, diagnosing and treating the congenital disease galactosemia. Leloir is buried in La Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires.
The Experimental Medicine and Biology Institute is a research and development centre affiliated to the University of Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The most important aspects of science and technology in Argentina are concerned with medicine, nuclear physics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, space and rocket technology and several fields related to the country's main economic activities. According to the World Bank, Argentina exports in high-technology are products with high R&D intensity, such as in aerospace, computers, pharmaceuticals, scientific instruments, and electrical machinery. Benefiting from Latin America's highest literacy rates since shortly after President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento made primary education universally available in the 1860s and 1870s, Argentine researchers and professionals at home and abroad continue to enjoy a high standing in their fields. Argentine Bernardo Houssay was the first Latin American awarded with a Nobel Prize in sciences. Educated in a National University, Houssay went on to establish Argentina's National Research Council, a centerpiece in Argentine scientific and technological development, fifty years on. Many other Argentines have contributed to scientific development around the world, though sometimes having to emigrate to do so. Probably for that, the Argentine education is referred as the Latin American docta, which originates from the Latin docta (learned). Argentina was ranked 76th in the Global Innovation Index in 2024.
The Leloir Institute is a non-profit research center in Buenos Aires specializing in biochemistry, cellular biology, molecular biology, and related activities.
Alberto Carlos Taquini was an Argentine cardiologist, clinical researcher and academic.
The Bernardo Houssay Award is a distinction awarded by Argentina's Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation to honor outstanding work by scientists and researchers. The Ministry selects recipients annually through a jury of prominent scientists. Presented by the President of Argentina, it is one of the country's most prestigious prizes in the field of science and engineering.
The 1905 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Polish novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846–1916) "because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer." He was given the prize on 10 December 1905. He is the first Polish author to win the Nobel Prize in the literary category and the second Polish citizen to win in general after the chemist Maria Skłodowska Curie in 1903. He was followed by Władysław Reymont in 1924.