José Antonio Balseiro (March 29, 1919 in

Córdoba Córdoba most commonly refers to: * Córdoba, Spain, a major city in southern Spain and formerly the imperial capital of Islamic Spain * Córdoba, Argentina, the second largest city in Argentina and the capital of Córdoba Province Córdoba or Cord ...

– March 26, 1962 in

Bariloche San Carlos de Bariloche (from the Mapuche name ''Vuriloche'', meaning "people from the other side of the mountain"), commonly known simply as Bariloche (), is the largest city in the Argentine province of Río Negro and the seat of the departm ...

) was an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

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 2022 Argentina census, census, the La Plata Partido, Partido has a population of 772,618 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 938,287 inhabit ...

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

Universidad Nacional de La Plata The National University of La Plata (, UNLP) is a national public research university located in the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It has over 90,000 regular students, 10,000 teaching staff, 17 departments and 10 ...

. His doctoral dissertation was directed by Dr.

Guido Beck Guido Beck (29 August 1903 – 21 October 1988) was an Argentine physicist of German Bohemian origin, who was born in Liberec and died in Rio de Janeiro. He discovered all cylindrically symmetric nonrotating vacuum solutions in general relativit ...

, 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 lang ...

. 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 The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

, in the group directed by

Léon Rosenfeld Léon Rosenfeld (; 14 August 1904 in Charleroi – 23 March 1974) was a Belgian physicist and a communist activist. Rosenfeld was born into a secular Jewish family. He was a polyglot who knew eight or nine languages and was fluent in at lea ...

. 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, 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 gener ...

. 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 __NOTOC__ Richard Martin Gans (7 March 1880 – 27 June 1954), German of Jewish origin, born in Hamburg, was the physicist who founded the Physics Institute of the National University of La Plata, Argentina. He was its Director in two different ...

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 (, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821, the UBA has educa ...

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

National Atomic Energy Commission The National Atomic Energy Commission (, CNEA) is the Argentine government agency in charge of nuclear energy research and development. The agency was created on 31 May 1950, with the mission of developing and controlling nuclear energy for pea ...

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; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce 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 () is an Argentine academic institution that belongs partially to the National University of Cuyo and partially to the National Atomic Energy Commission. It is located in Bariloche, Río Negro province, Argentina. Notable ...

. 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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balseiro, Jose Antonio 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 leukemia in Argentina Argentine expatriates in the United Kingdom