Last updated The National Atomic Energy Commission. Established in 1950, it was the world's first outside either the U.S. or the U.S.S.R. and had created a research reactor by 1957.The Leloir Institute of biotechnology. Founded by Nobel Laureate Dr. Luis Leloir, it is among the most prestigious in its field in Latin America, and the world.
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.[2] Benefiting from Latin America's highest literacy rates since shortly after PresidentDomingo 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[3] 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.[4] 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[5] (in Spanish: La docta Latinoamericana), which originates from the Latin docta (learned). Argentina was ranked 73rd in the Global Innovation Index in 2023.[6]
Dr. Luis Agote (second from right) overseeing the first safe and effective blood transfusion (1914)
Despite its modest budget and numerous setbacks, academics and the sciences in Argentina have enjoyed international respect since the turn of the 1900s, when Dr. Luis Agote devised the first safe and effective means of blood transfusion as well as René Favaloro, who was a pioneer in the improvement of the bypass surgery . Argentina is the Latin American country with the most Nobel Prize laureates; and has three Nobel Prize winners in the sciences: Bernardo Houssay in Physiology or Medicine in 1947, Luis Federico Leloir in Chemistry in 1970, and César Milstein in Physiology or Medicine in 1984. Dr. Domingo Liotta created the first artificial heart in 1969, revolutionizing the heart transplant field.
They have also contributed to bioscience in efforts like the Human Genome Project, where Argentine scientists have successfully mapped the genome of a living being, a world first.[7][8] Argentina has its own satellite programme, nuclear power station designs (4th generation) and public nuclear energy company INVAP, which provides several countries with nuclear reactors.[7]
SAC-D satellite
Other projects are focusing on IS, nanotechnology, biotechnology, helicopters, farming machinery and military defensive systems. Established in 1991, the CONAE has since launched 8 indigenous built satellites successfully, AMSAT, MuSat, SAC-B, SAC-A, SAC-C, SAC-D/Aquarius, ARSAT I and ARSAT-2.[9][10] In June 2009, secured an agreement with the European Space Agency on for the installation of a 35-m diameter antenna and other mission support facilities at the Pierre Auger Observatory. The facility will contribute to numerous ESA space probes, as well as CONAE's own, domestic research projects. Chosen from 20 potential sites and one of only three such ESA installations in the world, the new antenna will create a triangulation which will allow the ESA to ensure mission coverage around the clock.[11]
Social sciences have a particularly strong tradition in Argentina. Home to 122 think tanks specializing in public policy and economics issues, Argentina ranks fifth in the number of these institutions worldwide.[12]
In April 2009, Dr. Sandra Díaz, researcher from the Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biologia Vegetal (IMBIV - NU of C), was elected as a foreign associate member to the National Academy of Sciences (U.S.A.) in recognition of her outstanding work on climate change, being the first Hispanic woman to achieve this honor. Moreover, Dr. Diaz won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 as a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.[13]
Dr. Luis Federico Leloir (left) and his staff toast his 1970 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
INVAP: Argentine high-technology research & development company
A well-educated work force
Literacy Level
Four out of five Argentine adults have completed grade school, over a third have completed their secondary education and one in nine Argentine adults have college degrees. Likewise, Argentina has the highest rate of university students in Latin America, besides having more within the southern hemisphere with professors and institutions awarded prestigious prizes and fellowships from philanthropic institutions like the John S. Guggenheim Foundation[14] awards or the Howard Hughes Medical Institute,[15][16] to name a few. Official sources recently reported roughly 1,500,000 college students within the Argentine University System;[17] this represents the highest rate - relative to its total population - of academic students in Latin America and exceeds the ratio in many developed countries.[18]
Overview of policy environment, 2015–2019
Upon taking office in December 2015, the Macri government set out eight goals and 100 priority initiatives to foster socioeconomic development. A number of these have links to the SDGs. Accordingly, through the National Council for the Coordination of Social Policies (CNCPS), the government established the National Inter-Institutional Commission for the Implementation and Monitoring of the SDGs, of which the Vice-Ministry of Science and Technology is a member.[19]
A review found that progress had been made by 2018 towards aligning national priorities with the SDGs and in setting up adequate monitoring mechanisms. The government budget dedicated to research and development (R&D) and higher education also supports most of the national research institutes. This budget has decreased since 2015.[19]
Although research intensity has dipped only slightly since 2015, other signs suggest that a lower priority is being accorded to science, technology and innovation; research and infrastructure projects have been cut back or cancelled in the following areas: the extension of satellite networks and radar; the expansion of the nuclear industry; and support for industrial and agricultural R&D through their respective technological institutes. In 2018, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation was downgraded in the administrative hierarchy to a Secretariat of State under the Ministry of Education.[19]
These quantitative and qualitative changes are likely to have perturbed the growth rate of scientific articles, which has been slow and irregular since 2011. Meanwhile, sectoral funds remain important programmes in Argentina, particularly FONSOFT, promoting the software industry and FONARSEC, the Argentine Sectoral Fund which focuses on medical, optical and precision instruments, machinery and electrical appliances. These sectoral funds are managed by the National Agency for Scientific and Technological Promotion (ANPCyT), with public and private counterparts.[19]
Gerty Theresa Cori was an Austrian-American biochemist who in 1947 was the third woman to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for her role in the "discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen".
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.
Education in state institutions is at the initial, primary, secondary and tertiary levels and in the undergraduate university level. Private education is paid, although in some cases state subsidies support its costs. According to studies by UNESCO, education in Argentina and Uruguay guarantee equality to have institutional features that hinder the commercialization of education, as well as Finland has characteristics that favor multiethnic population education and special education, education favors Argentina equality. According to the last census, the illiteracy rate is 1.9%, the second lowest in Latin America. In the last decade, Argentina has created nine new universities, while the outflow of university students increased by 68%.
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.
Miguel Rolando Covian, was an Argentine-Brazilian physiologist, medical educator and writer.
The Experimental Medicine and Biology Institute is a research and development centre affiliated to the University of Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Eduardo Moacyr Krieger is a Brazilian physician, physiologist and scientific leader, current president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
The National Scientific and Technical Research Council is an Argentine government agency which directs and co-ordinates most of the scientific and technical research done in universities and institutes.
The National Space Activities Commission is the civilian agency of the government of Argentina in charge of the national space programme.
The National Academy of Sciences of Argentina main task is to promote and support Argentine scientific and technological policy. National Academy of Sciences publishing activity supports National Scientific and Technical Research Council.
Eduardo Braun-Menéndez was a noted Argentine physiologist.
The Leloir Institute is a non-profit research center in Buenos Aires specializing in biochemistry, cellular biology, molecular biology, and related activities.
The Buenos Aires National Academy of Medicine is an Argentine non-profit organization and learned society.
Alberto Carlos Taquini was an Argentine cardiologist, clinical researcher and academic.
The Argentine Institute of Radio Astronomy (IAR) was created in 1962 through an agreement between the scientific agencies CONICET and CIC, and the universities of La Plata and Buenos Aires. Its functions are to promote and coordinate the research and technical development of radio astronomy in Argentina and to collaborate in the teaching and dissemination of astrophysics and related disciplines. The Institute continues its activities in the dependency of the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), the Commission of Scientific Research of the Province of Buenos Aires (CICPBA) and the National University of La Plata (UNLP). Its current director is Dr. Gustavo E. Romero and its deputy director, Dr. Jorge A. Combi.
Vanesa Gottifredi is an Argentine chemist and biologist. She works as a researcher in the Principal Investigator category of the Scientific and Technological Researcher Program (CICT) of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). She is also head of the Leloir Institute's Cell Cycle and Genomic Stability Laboratory. She specializes in the mechanisms of tumor cell response to chemotherapy, work for which she was awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and L'Oreal-UNESCO.
Armando J. Parodi is an Argentine glycobiologist. He did his initial education at the School of Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. His PhD work was done under Luis Federico Leloir, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work involving the finding of sugar nucleotides and how they play a role in the making of oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. He also pursued postdoc work at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France and Duke University in Durham, NC, USA.
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 history of science and technology in Argentina covers scientific policies and discoveries made in the country.
↑ Sulek, K (1968), "Nobel prize for Carl Ferdinand Cori and Gerta Theresa Cori in 1947 for discovery of the course of catalytic metabolism of glycogen. Prize for Alberto Bernardo Houssay for discovery on the role of the hypophysis in carbohydrate metabolism.", Wiad. Lek., vol.21, no.17 (published Sep 1, 1968), pp.1609–10, PMID4882480
↑ Latino, Rosa María (March 2010). "Familia Infancia y Genero"(PDF). La Travesía de la Libertad Ante el Bicentenario, X Seminario Argentino-Chileno, IV Congreso Interoceanico de Estudios Latinoamericanos. Simposio. 10. Mendoza, Argentina: 9. ISBN978-987-9441-40-4.
1 2 3 4 Dutrénit, G.; Aguirre-Bastos, C.; Puchet, M. and M. Salazar (2021) Latin America. In UNESCO Science Report: the Race Against Time for Smarter Development. Schneegans, S.; Straza, T. and J. Lewis (eds). UNESCO Publishing: Paris.
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