Houssay, Leloir and Milstein were the three Argentines who won Nobel Prizes in Science

The Nobel Prize is an international award given each year to recognize individuals or institutions that have made notable research, discoveries, or contributions to humanity. The award was instituted in 1895 as the last will of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer, writer and inventor recognized for inventing dynamite. The first awards ceremony took place in 1901 in the categories of Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Peace. Starting in 1968, the Nobel Prize in Economics was also established. Bernardo Houssay, Luis Federico Leloir and César Milstein were the three Argentines who received Nobel Prizes in Science.

How do the Nobel Prizes work?

The Nobel Prizes are delivered annually. Each awarded person or institution receives a gold medal, a diploma and a sum of money. Prizes cannot be awarded posthumously, unless the winner has been named prior to death. If the prize is shared, the amount of money is divided among the winners, who cannot be more than three people.

The Argentines who won Nobel Prizes in Science

The three Argentines who obtained Nobel Laureates in Science They were Bernardo Houssay, Luis Federico Leloir and César Milstein.

1. Bernardo Alberto Houssay

He was an Argentine doctor, professor and pharmacist. For his discoveries about the role that pituitary hormones play in regulating the amount of sugar in the blood (glucose) he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1947, which made him the first Latin American laureate in Sciences.. Thanks to his work, physiology was the medical discipline with the greatest vigor and development in Argentina. He was born in 1887 and passed away in 1971.

2. Luis Federico Leloir

He was an Argentine doctor, biochemist and pharmacist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1970 for his research on sugar nucleotides and their role in the manufacture of carbohydrates. After its discovery, it was possible to fully understand the congenital disease called “Galactosemia”. He was born in 1906 and died in 1987.

3. Cesar Milstein

He was an Argentine chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1984 for his research on monoclonal antibodies. With his studies on immunoglobulins, he advanced the understanding about the process by which the blood produces antibodies, that is, proteins in charge of fighting the presence of foreign bodies or antigens. Together with Georges Köhler, César Milstein developed a technique to create antibodies with the same chemical structure, which he called “monoclonal antibodies”. He was born in 1927 and died in 2002.

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