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Science and technology in Argentina
[[File:InstitutoLeloir044.JPG|thumb|240px|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, and several fields related to the country's main economic activities.
Benefiting from Latin America's highest literacy rates since shortly after President Domingo 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. Bernardo Houssay of Argentina was the first Latin American awarded with a Nobel Prize in the sciences. 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, Argentina is sometimes referred to as the Latin American docta , which originates from the Latin docta (learned).
This country, with its high level of multiculturalism and ample natural resources, has seen its share of instability and lost many of its most talented professionals over the years. Yet it continues its commitment to cultivate the most educated work force possible and, recently recovering from years of malaise, education and scientific training is still a work in progress - as in other Latin American countries and, indeed, the world.
Eminences in their fields
Despite its modest budgets and many setbacks, education and the sciences in Argentina have had a global standing in excellence since before World War I, when Dr. Luis Agote devised the first safe and effective means of blood transfusion as well as Rene Favaloro who has been a pioneer in the improvement of the bypass surgery . Argentina has since then had three Nobel Prize winners in the sciences: Bernardo Houssay in 1947, Luis Federico Leloir in 1971, and Cesar Milstein in 1984. Argentine scientists are still on the cutting edge in fields such as nanotechnology, physics, computer sciences and cardiology, the latter of which Dr. Domingo Liotta revolutionized with the first purely artificial heart, in 1969.
They have likewise 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. ibid. 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.
Other projects are focusing on IT, nanotechnology, biotechnology, helicopters, farming machinery and military defensive systems. Space research has also become increasingly active in Argentina. Established in 1991, the CONAE has since launched two satellites successfully and, 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. Buenos Aires Herald: Interplanetary support station to be installed in Argentina
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. Argentina, quinto pais en el mundo en centros de estudio - Clarin
Recently, Sandra Diaz, PhD in Biology, researcher at the NU of C, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, was designated member of the National Academy of Science by its outstanding labor on hers labor on climate change being the first Hispanic American woman to achieve that honor.
Currently there are further outstanding Argentine researchers in the mentioned institution as Alberto Carlos Frasch (NU of SAM), Armando Parodi (NU of SAM - Leloir Institute), and Francisco de la Cruz (Balseiro Institute - NU of Cu).
Among the public institutions devoted to research and development in Argentina are:
CITEFA: Armed Forces Scientific and Technical Research Institute
CNEA: National Atomic Energy Commission
CONAE: National Space Activities Commission
CONICET: the National Research Council
INTA: National Agricultural Technology Institute
INTI: National Industrial Technology Institute
INVAP: Argentine high-technology research & development company
ORT Argentina a non-government organization devoted to education, leader in technology education.
A well-educated work force
Four out five Argentine adults have completed grade school, over a third have completed their secondary education and one in nine Argentine adults have college degrees, making the Argentine work force the most educated in a region (Latin America) that itself enjoys the highest educational standards in the developing worldUN Demographic Yearbook, 2005 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 "Argentina as the main beneficiary of Guggenheim scholarships" La Nacion awards or the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, La Nacion to name a few. Official sources recently reported roughly 1,500,000 college students within the Argentine University System; this represents the highest rate - relative to its total population - of academic students in Latin America and exceeds the ratio in many developed countries.
See also
Education in Argentina
Science and Education in Argentina
Argentine Higher Education Official Site
The Argentine Education System
List of universities in Argentina
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Science and technology in Argentina
