BERNARDO ALBERTO HOUSSAY (1887-1971) Argentine physician and physiologist.
He was awarded (with Carl and Gerty Cori) the 1947 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the influence of pituitary hormones in regulating the blood glucose in animals.
Houssay was Professor in Physiology in the National School of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires.
In 1919, he created the Institute of Physiology of the Faculty of Medicine of Buenos Aires, which became a center of world excellence in the area of the scientific research.
He performed his teaching and research job until 1943 when he was fired for political reasons.
In 1944 he developed a hard work of investigation in the Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine (Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental) that he funded with private support.
Houssay and his team managed to investigate the role of the pituitary gland in the metabolic processes of the carbohydrates and in diabetes mellitus.
Houssay’s many disciples has gained recognition around the world. One of them, the Argentine Luis Federico Leloir received the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 1970.
Other disciples such as Eduarto Braun-Menéndez, and Miguel Rolando Covian became also influential by themselves.
Miguel Rolando Covian is considered one of the fathers of neurophysiology in Brazil.
Houssay wrote with Braun-Menéndez and Covian the most influential textbook of human physiology in Latin America (Fisiologia Humana, 1950).
In 1972, the OEA (Organization of American States) instituted the “Bernardo Houssay’s Award” to reward the most important investigators of the American continent.
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