José Antonio Balseiro (March 29, 1919 in Córdoba – March 26, 1962 in

Bariloche San Carlos de Bariloche, usually known as Bariloche (), is a city in the province of Río Negro Province, Río Negro, Argentina, situated in the foothills of the Andes on the southern shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake. It is located within the Nahuel ...

) was an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

physicist. Balseiro studied at the

Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Universidad (Spanish for "university") may refer to: Places * Universidad, San Juan, Puerto Rico * Universidad (Madrid) Football clubs * Universidad SC, a Guatemalan football club that represents the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala ...

in his home city, before moving to

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...

to study and research, obtaining a doctorate in physics at the

Universidad Nacional de La Plata The La Plata National University ( es, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, UNLP) is one of the most important Argentine national universities and the biggest one situated in the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province. It has over 90, ...

. His doctoral dissertation was directed by Dr.

Guido Beck Guido Beck (29 August 1903 in Liberec – 21 October 1988 in Rio de Janeiro) was an Argentinian physicist of German Bohemian origin. Biography Beck studied physics in Vienna and received his doctorate in 1925, under Hans Thirring. He worked in ...

, an Austrian physicist who arrived as a refugee in 1943. In 1950 he received a scholarship granted by the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

. Due to the limited funds provided by the scholarship, his wife and daughter remained in Argentina. Balseiro did his post-doctoral research at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

, in the group directed by

Léon Rosenfeld Léon Rosenfeld (; 14 August 1904 in Charleroi – 23 March 1974) was a Belgium, Belgian physicist and Marxist. Rosenfeld was born into a Jewish secularism, secular Jews, Jewish family. He was a polyglot who knew eight or nine languages and ...

. His father was Galician and his mother was French. The Argentine government requested that he return to Argentina in 1952, a few months before the expiration of his scholarship, to serve in the scientific review panel of the

Huemul Project The Huemul Project ( es, Proyecto Huemul) was an early 1950s Argentine effort to develop a fusion power device known as the Thermotron. The concept was invented by Austrian scientist Ronald Richter, who claimed to have a design that would produce ...

, a study on nuclear fusion conducted by

Ronald Richter Ronald Richter (1909–1991) was an Austrian-born German, later Argentine citizen, scientist who became infamous in connection with the Argentine Huemul Project and the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA). The project was intended to generat ...

. Balseiro's report and those of other members of the panel finally convinced the government that the Huemul Project had no scientific merit. Based on this, and reports from a second review panel (composed of physicists

Richard Gans Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

and Antonio Rodríguez), the Huemul Project was abandoned. Afterwards, Balseiro remained in Argentina where he was appointed director of the physics department of the Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales of the

Universidad de Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one of the most prestigi ...

in 1952. In 1955, using part of the old installations of the Huemul Project, the

National Atomic Energy Commission The National Atomic Energy Commission ( es, Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica, CNEA) is the Argentine government agency in charge of nuclear energy research and development. The agency was created on May 31, 1950, with the mission of deve ...

created the ''Instituto de Física de Bariloche''. Balseiro played an important role in this decision and served as the first director of the new institution. Upon his untimely death from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

in 1962, the institute was renamed

Instituto Balseiro Balseiro Institute ( es, Instituto Balseiro) is an academic institution that belongs partially to the National University of Cuyo and partially to Argentina's National Atomic Energy Commission. It is located in Bariloche, Río Negro province, Ar ...

. In 2005 the Instituto Balseiro celebrated 50 years of existence, having grown to become one of the country's leading centers for research in new technology, physics, and nuclear engineering.

References

External links

Biography
(Spanish)

at the

(Spanish)
Physics in Latin America
1919 births 1962 deaths People from Córdoba, Argentina Argentine people of Galician descent Argentine people of French descent 20th-century Argentine physicists Argentine nuclear physicists National University of Córdoba alumni Deaths from cancer in Argentina Deaths from leukemia Argentine expatriates in the United Kingdom {{physicist-stub