2YEAR 2013VOL.25 NO.2

Published with the support of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences

newsletterTWASA P U B L I C A T I O N O F T H E W O R L D A C A D E M Y O F S C I E N C E S

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222-7369

CONTENTS 2 SCIENCE IN A TIME OF GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION 6ARGENTINA:A NATION FOR INNOVATION 12ARGENTINAS STAR IS RISING 18BALSEIRO: ASPECIAL PLACE FOR GLOBAL SCIENCE 24 MIXING SCIENCE INTO TRADITIONALFLOUR 29CONNECTING TO LATIN AMERICAN SCIENCE NETWORKS 34A HOME FORSTAR-GAZERS IN LATIN AMERICA 37FROM COLOMBIA, A LESSON IN RESILIENCE40DISASTER PLAN: LOCAL KNOWLEDGE, THE LATEST SCIENCE 45A VOICE FORSCIENCE IN THE SOUTH 50PEOPLE, PLACES, EVENTS

Over the past 30 years, tremendous changes have swept across the international sciencelandscape: developing countries have increased their investments in research and scienceeducation.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, they have more than doubled their expenditure on

R&D1. The investments have paid off in growing numbers of researchers and publications, and

in surging development and economic growth, especially in such countries as Brazil, India, and

my own country, China. Other nations have seen this success and are following a similar path.

Today, thanks to a great and continuing effort, the powers of innovation are being distributed

across the globe. International scientific collaboration is flourishing.

TWAS can rightly claim some credit for this ongoing transformation. From the time of its

birth in 1983, founder Abdus Salam, the 42 Founding Fellows and other Academy leaders

advanced a central idea:

through science, engineering

and technology, developing

nations can empower them-

selves to solve problems and

build prosperity. In schools, laboratories and political capitals throughout the world, TWAS

has built important programmes and networks. Just as important, it has helped to convey a

sense of scientific confidence where confidence often had been absent.

This autumn, TWAS convenes its 24th General Meeting in the beautiful and dynamic city

of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is our 30th anniversary, and we are celebrating all of the

important partners and friends who have shared our work and helped TWAS to grow. It is,

as well, a celebration of science in Argentina and throughout Latin America.

Latin America has always been important to TWAS. Among the Founding Fellows, 10

were from the region. Brazilian chemist Jos I. Vargas, TWASs president from 1996-2000,

guided TWAS through a very important period after Salams death. And my predecessor,

Brazilian mathematician Jacob Palis, led TWAS to significant growth across a range of

important programmes from 2006-2012.

Science in a time ofglobal transformation

EDITORIALTWAS NEWSLETTERPublished quarterly

with the support of theKuwait Foundation for the

Advancement of Sciences (KFAS)by The World Academy of Sciences -for the advancement of sciencein developing countries (TWAS)ICTP Campus, Strada Costiera 11

34151 Trieste, Italytel: +39 040 2240327fax: +39 040 224559e-mail: info@twas.orgwebsite: www.twas.org

TWAS COUNCIL

PresidentBai Chunli

Immediate Past PresidentJacob Palis

Vice-PresidentsFayzah M.A. Al-KharafiFrancisco J. Barrantes

Rabia HussainKeto E. Mshigeni

Yongyuth Yuthavong

Secretary-GeneralA.K. Sood

TreasurerMohamed H.A. Hassan

Council MembersRobin Crewe

Adel E.T. El-BeltagyHabib FirouzabadiHarold RamkissoonFarida H. Shah

Fernando Quevedo

TWAS EXECUTIVE DIRECTORRomain Murenzi

EDITOREdward W. Lempinen

MANAGING EDITORGisela Isten

ASSISTANT EDITORSCristina SerraSean Treacy

DESIGN & ART DIRECTIONRado Jagodic

www.studio-link.it

PRINTINGStella Arti Grafiche, Trieste

Cover image:European Space Agency Deep SpaceAntenna in Malarge, Argentina

Unless otherwise indicated,the text is written by the editorsand may be reproduced freelywith due credit to the source.

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13Argentina, with three Nobel science laureates, has long been admired by developing

nations. In recent years, under the government of Argentinian president Cristina Fernndez

de Kirchner, Argentina has been working intently to leverage science and technology for eco-

nomic strength. INVAP, a spin-off of the renowned Instituto Balseiro, provides satellites to

NASA in the United States and to other nations; its nuclear research and energy facilities are

in demand worldwide. Earlier this year, Argentina issued a plan that could increase R&D

investment to 1.65% of GDP more than double the current rate by 2020.

Other nations in Latin America are following a course of similar ambition. According to

SciDev.net, Brazils science budget in 2002 was about USD575 million; for 2013, the invest-

ment has grown to USD5.6 billion, the nations highest level ever. One estimate puts its 2013

R&D investment at 1.3% of GDP. Recognizing Brazils skilled science workforce, a number of

major international companies are creating research centres there. Mexico, meanwhile, is

working to push investment up to 1% of GDP, and it is helping to educate and train science

students from throughout the developing world through TWAS PhD and postdoctoral fellow-

ship programmes. Chile is becoming the international capital of telescope astronomy.

Of course, Latin Americas advances in science and engineering are happening in a global

context. Indias R&D investments amount to 10% of the total for all of Asia. Its science and

engineering universities are among the continents best, and its publications have been rising

steadily. China is spending nearly 2% of its GDP on research and development. Its workforce

of scientists and engineers was less than 800,000 at the turn of the century; by 2008 it was

1.6 million, and by the end of 2012 it had risen another 50% to 2.9 million. In materials

science, it has emerged as the world leader in research publications.

You can look at other nations and see similar trends: South Africa and Rwanda, for

example, or Malaysia and Bangladesh. In many nations of the Arab world,

science enrollment in universities is surging. But the progress is uneven,

and TWAS and others share a concern that many developing nations

risk being left behind.

This creates a high priority for networking and cooperation

among nations of the developing world. Again, we can point to

many positive examples: universities and research centres across

Latin America collaborating on physics, astronomy and social sci-

ences, for example, or the nations of East Africa joining to increase

internet bandwidth and access to information through a

shared optical fibre network.

Over the past 30 years, helping to build science-

based networks has been one of TWASs most impor-

Top to bottom: TWAS founder Abdus Salam; constructionof satellite at Argentinas leading technology company,INVAP; researchers on the Auger Project, basedin Argentina, which is stydying ultra-high-energycosmic rays; Argentinian president CristinaFernndez de Kirchner.

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13 tant roles, and one of its greatest successes. Our PhD and postdoctoral research fellowships, to

cite a key example, are based on the idea of building science in the developing world through

South-South cooperation. We are now able to offer more than 500 fellowships per year, and

we are aiming for at least 1,000 in years to come.

In China, the age of 30 is auspicious. In the Analects, Confucius says: At 30, I stood

firm. This well describes TWAS as we celebrate our 30th anniversary. We are established

and well-known; we have broad credibility in the world of science, both South and North.

Still, TWAS faces a central challenge: Both our programmes and our vision must evolve to

keep pace with a constantly changing global scientific landscape.

Certainly it will be important for TWAS, in the years ahead, to focus energy on the least

developed countries, and on programmes to support their scientific and technological devel-

opment. TWAS also should seek to elect excellent scientists from countries where we current-

ly have no members; a good goal is to expand our membership from the current 91 countries

to 100 in coming years.

We may find one model in the five CAS-TWAS Centres of Excellence. The centres are

focused on areas of critical importance and value for the developing world: water, biotech-

nology, green technology, climate and environment sciences, and space technology for disas-

ter mitigation. The new investment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is focused on

PhD programmes, joint research projects, workshops, training, and strategic study reports at

CAS and the China-based centres.

The programmes will bring in top scholars from both the developed and the developing

world. The programmes will be open to students from the developing world, and many will

include support for women scientists. We envision the five TWAS regional offices playing an

important role in supporting and advancing the centres of excellence.

With this systematic approach, the centres will function as a powerful arm of TWAS in

achieving some of its most important strategic missions, while fully employing its resources

and building its networks.

TWAS attaches great importance to the nurturing of young scientific talents in developing

countries. Bearing this in mind, TWAS and CAS initiated a new Presidents Fellowship Pro-

gramme early this year; up to 140 students annually will be sponsored to travel to China for

up to four years of PhD study and research. With this and many more other efforts, TWAS

looks forward to the spreading of scientific awareness and strengthening of science capacity

building in the developing countries.

The celebration of our 30th anniversary is an important time for us to acknowledge the

hard work and transformative contributions of TWASs founders and past leaders. As we

reflect on their accomplishments in building the Academy, we must also commit ourselves to

matching their ambition, their energy and their many years of innovation.

> Bai Chunli took office as TWAS president in January 2013.He also is president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

1 Based on the standard United Nations Statistics Division classification (composition of macro geographical (continen-tal) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings). Knowledge, Networks and Nations:Global scientific collaboration in the 21st century. 28 March, 2011. -Royal Academy of Sciences

4

From top:A radio telescope with theAtacama Large MillimeterArray project in the AtacamaDesert in Chile (Photo: ESO).Argentinian physicist JosAntonio Balseiro, founderof the Balseiro Institutein Bariloche (Photo:Balseiro Institute).A student in the KeVaccelerator lab at theBalseiro Institute (Photo:Balseiro Institute).Surface detector tanks stagedfor preparation at the PierreAuger Observatory inMalarge, Argentina (Photo:Pierre Auger Observatory).

At right:At 30, I stood firm. Confucius, Analects

Calligraphy by TWASpresident Bai Chunlioffering the Academygood wishes for its30th anniversary.

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INTERVIEW

Sometime later this year, Argentina will celebrate a milestone in its modern scientific devel-opment: After an epidemic of brain drain over the last 15 years, the 1,000th Argentinian sci-entist is expected to return home to resume work. It is a measure of the commitment to sciencemade by Argentinian president Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner and the nations first minister ofscience, technology and productive innovation, Lino Baraao.

Baraao was appointed nearly six years ago, when the government upgraded the secretariatfor science, technology and productive innovation into a ministry. He brought scientific visionand administrative skill to the job, and has maintained perspective by continuing to run his owncell biology laboratory.

Argentina has long had a sophisticated and accomplished science culture; it has had threeNobel laureates, more than any other Latin American nation. But for decades, many of its bestresearchers have left to work in Europe and the United States. This challenge is known well inmany other nations of Latin America and the developing world, but for Argentina, the problemwas compounded by a severe financial crisis in 20012003.

Under Kirchner, Latin Americas second largest country is working to renew its researchstrength through targeted interventions in science and technology. It has increased investmentin science, technology and innovation to 0.51% of its gross domestic product, up from 0.39%during the crisis. This has placed Argentina in third place among Latin American nations, afterBrazil (1.11%) and Chile (0.68%). The country is now among the top performers in terms ofnumber of scientists, with 5.68 for every 1,000 economically active people. It maintains part-nerships with top research centres in Europe and the United States. Its universities are pulsingwith new energy and resources, and its science-related companies are growing and succeedingin international markets.

ARGENTINA:A NATION

FOR INNOVATION

S C I E N C E M IN I S T E R L I NO BARAAO DR EAMS O F T RAN S F O RM ING

ARGENTINA INTO AN INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR RESEARCH. WHEN

TWAS CONVENES IN BUENOS AIRES FOR THE ACADEMYS 24TH GENERAL

MEETING, MEMBERS WILL FIND THAT THE DREAM IS BECOMING REALITY.

However, Baraao aims high. He has aclear picture of where Argentina standstoday, and of where it should be a decadefrom now. In advance of TWASs 24th Gen-eral Meeting, from 1 to 4 October in BuenosAires, Cristina Serra from the AcademysPublic Information Office interviewed himto get insight into Argentinas current workand future plans.

Your appointment as the first Argentinianminister of science, technology and productive innovation started in December 2007.What were the priorities in your agenda?We identified two major goals. Formulate new science and technology policies, with the aid of aspecial secretary devoted to the elaboration of national plans; and draft guidelines aimed atobtaining governmental, private and international funds to carry out scientific projects. Such abig innovation differentiates the actual policy from the past. The strict coupling between medi-um- and long-term projects, with ad hoc funding to carry out these investigations, gave ourrecent strategic plan Argentina Innovadora 2020 an unprecedented solidity, with importantreflections also on our economy.

What is Argentina Innovadora and why is it so important for the economy?Argentina Innovadora is the Argentinian plan for scientific and technological development thatcovers years 20122015. It acknowledges that the national development and the competitive-ness of our economy are tightly linked. Science plays a key role in this, acting as in a domino

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LINO BARAAO

A renowned scientist with strong expertise in cell biology, reproductive physiology and animalbiotechnology, Lino Baraao is minister of science, technology and productive innovation inthe government of Argentinian president Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner.Baraao graduated with honours in chemistry at the University of Buenos Aires in 1976, thenearned his PhD in biological chemistry in 1980. The same year, he received the National MedicalAcademys award for his investigations aimed at elucidating the role of hormones in diabetes.Moved by a passion for scientific research, he spent some time in the United States and Germany,and upon his return to Argentina, he was in the team that created the first genetically engineeredcalf, altered to produce fortified milk containing human growth hormone (2002).In 2003, he was the president of the National Agency for Science and Technology, and in 2007was appointed Argentinas first minister of science, technology and productive innovation.He is also president of the Federal Council for Science and Technology, a major advisory boardto the ministry; president of the Science and Technology Cabinet; and member of the Manage-ment Council of the Argentinian Nanotechnology Foundation. He also remains a faculty mem-ber at the University of Buenos Aires.

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13effect: by fuelling our national scientificcapacities, we give impulse to entrepreneur-ship and productive innovation. This, inturn, will boost the national workflow andultimately improve the populations qualityof life. The plan is a far-sighted document,as it was drafted by 300 experts fromscience, technology, production and socialsectors, who identified strategic interven-tion areas worth developing such as target-ed funding, technological innovation, avail-ability of information (like in ArgentinasElectronic Library of Science and Technolo-gy), outreach and science dissemination.

The economic crisis that struck Argentinain 20012003 caused massive stagnation.What did the government do to rebootthe economy?To compensate for the lack of imports, thegovernment began to support some small local companies. A number of these then flourished,and now they are well consolidated. One such successful example refers to the milk industry.Instead of buying foreign supplies, the government helped a few dairy companies with incen-tives and tax concessions. As a consequence, the companies incorporated more professionals;they grew in size and competitiveness, and now they hold a firm position on the market. So, insome ways we exploited the crisis to promote local firms that in the past could not competewith foreign imports, and triggered local productive changes.

What happened to science during the crisis?During last decades crunch, the whole scientific community agonized. As a scientist (I still runa laboratory and follow my team personally), I recall that we suffered from the situation interms of manpower, development of new ideas, wages. Generally speaking, salaries in Argentinawere very low and many qualified colleagues fled the county looking for jobs at American orEuropean universities, where facilities and funds were available.

How did these migrants of science feel about leaving their country?In most cases they knew that leaving was the right choice. However, they were strongly moti-vated to come back: they have an international brain, but their heart is Argentinian. Their rootswere here. Families were here. They wanted to raise their children here. This is why, once giventhe chance, they were happy to return, to contribute to the prosperity of our society and to eco-nomic development.

As the newly appointed minister, what did you do to give science fresh energy and halt thebrain drain?From 2003, with the inception of the national agency for promotion of science, the government

Argentinian science minister Lino Baraao withArgentinian president Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner.

tried to attract Argentinian scientists who were working aboard by launching a programmecalled R@ices (races, or roots). The idea was to repatriate skilled investigators and build a newscientific network with international links. They set up this programme under Nestor Kirchnerspresidency, and we made it official with an ad hoc law under de Kirchners mandate. From 2003to July 2011, some 834 scientists came back, mainly from America (54%) and from Europe(44%). At the end of 2013, we expect to celebrate the 1,000th return. From the time of myappointment on, we also focused on creating better work conditions: by increasing the salaries,making new grants available and launching ambitious programmes to enhance scientific struc-tures and facilities all over the country. Today, the budget allocated for science is tenfold thebudget we had in 2003. And scientists have better equipment and wider spaces.

Were these scientists happy to come back?We tried to ease their return by providing them with full-time contracts, special funds to estab-lish laboratories and security for life. They were well-received, were interviewed on TV,explained what they were doing. Today I can say that we did the right thing: the productivity ofthese people is very high, their publications are excellent. Overall, Argentinas scientific produc-tion during the last seven to eight years has increased tenfold with respect to the past decade,showing that highly competitive scientists perform well, yet maintaining their collaborationswith foreign countries. Which is an added value.

Other steps to boost science?Making sure that we could develop both basic science and the private sector, we identified threeplatforms worth developing: nanotechnology, biotechnology and informatics. Argentina, forexample, is particularly strong in biotechnology and in its intersection with health: we haveidentified some recombinant proteins proteins engineered with laboratory techniques thatare now on the market.

In addition, we launched a call to boost proposals from public/private consortia, and wefunded three consortia that produce recombinant proteins for medical use. With the initialgrants we allotted, almost USD7 million, these consortia have covered the initial high-riskphase; then private actors followed, providing funds for further development and to up-scale theproduction and reach the market. This scheme is working well: partnerships between universi-

ties and companies widen the spectrum of opportunities,enhance human resources and provide a critical flow ofknowledge, instrumental to getting transforming results.

Argentina was the first Latin American country to setup fruitful relationships with the European Union,through a cooperation agreement (1990). Since then,other articles were signed: what results stemmedfrom these science and tech agreements?The first, in 1990, set the stage for bilateral cooperationand exportations. Then we signed other agreements onfisheries (1993), on the peaceful use of nuclear power

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Baraao at work in his laboratory.

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(1997) and on science and technology (1999). Our continuous participation in EU pro-grammes is very important; this is why we set up a dedicated office that advises scientists onhow to participate in the programmes. But we provide this service also to other Latin Americancountries that do not have such a facility. This is not an altruistic policy. We have an ambitiousdream: to make Argentina first, and South America later, an international laboratory where sci-entists meet, exchange ideas and spot original solutions to common problems. This is why wekeep close relationships with different European institutions, such as the Max Planck Institutein Germany; the CNRS in France; the International Centre for Genetic Engineering, in Trieste,a world-renowned centre for biotechnology. Cooperation with the EU is, in general, a top pri-ority for us.

Regarding South America, this idea of an international laboratory calls for establishingfresh political connections based on common interests and more global views. How arethe relationships between Argentina and the neighbouring countries?I am deeply convinced that scientists share a common view of nature, common interests, thatspeak the same language and are able to tie countries that otherwise would remain isolated.Policy and economy work to maintain national identity for the benefit of national interests.Science and technology are international activities, not constrained by boundaries. In a sense,scientists are the diplomacy arms of governments. It is quite common to see scientists fromIsrael and Palestine or from Russia and China work together, bridging gaps that policy is unableto overcome.

This is why we are promoting international networks in Latin America: we participate inMercosur, providing counseling in meetings on science and technology and we keep a high levelof cooperation with Brazil.

Alongside Mercosur, there is another initiative called Biotechsur. Could you explain what it is?Biotechsur is a biotechnology platform funded by the European Union. It aims at fostering inno-vation in food production through the pro-motion of biotechnology in the four LatinAmerican members of Mercosur (Argentina,Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela). Biotechsuris a far-sighted platform where policymak-ers formulate public policies based on thesetechnologies, and it has already achievedsome success. One example is a robot for thephenotypic evaluation of soybean plantsthat is speeding up the process of selectingproper varieties to increase the productivityof soils. In the pipeline, we also have someprojects to identify vegetable genes that pro-vide resistance to drought and abiotic stress.Some of these genes were already identifiedand patented in US companies and inArgentinas. Another study that will be pub-lished soon is on the genome of commonTW

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Baraao with his research team.

beans, carried out by a consortium of Latin American laboratories, which expects to find genesimportant in terms of productivity and nutritional values.

Lets try to imagine where Argentina will stand five to ten years from nowI like to picture Argentina as the place for innovation, where scientists and entrepreneurs comewith a problem, and from where they leave with a solution.

We want to develop and use our creativity and ingenuity, to provide innovation and showthat we can compete as a country, not in terms of salaries, but in terms of creativeness. LatinAmerica as a whole should recover a more dynamic role in innovation.

This autumn, Buenos Aires is hosting TWASs 24th General Meeting, convening more than300 scientists from all over the world. What are your expectations for this event? Whatcould the major outputs be?We will like to show whats going on in Argentina, what major technologies are, and I think itwill be important for our country and for the other scientists to be here and have direct contactwith our reality, to see our scientific products. It is also crucial for our politicians, as they needto show that Argentina is a very attractive country for scientists where science gets supported byan assisting policy. Our goal is to use this TWAS event to consolidate what we have been doingin the last ten years.

Do you think that science academies like TWAS have a role in modern societies andeconomies?I think that Latin America, and Argentina in particular, owes much to TWAS, in terms of the for-mation of human resources. Many young scientists have received inspiration as well as impor-tant support from your Academy. In the long term we want to collaborate more closely withTWAS, sharing its mission to create new facilities in Buenos Aires and elsewhere, for training ofscientists from all Latin America. We hope we can establish a new order based on scientific inter-nationality.

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Left: Argentinian president Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner and minister for science, technology and productiveinnovation Lino Baraao. Right: Scientists at work.

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FEATURE

ARGENTINASSTAR IS RISING

From a reputation in the biomed-ical sciences that grew from threeNobel prizes, to new prominence inthe study of astroparticles, modern-day Argentina is an appealing placeto be a scientist. By strongly sup-porting its public universities andinstitutions, the country has built ascientific framework for research in biomedicine, agro-technology, physics, space sciences, climatology andEarth sciences. Now, the nation is a model for scientificgrowth in the developing world.

The central piece of Argentinas scientific frame-work is CONICET, the National Scientific and TechnicalResearch Council, established in 1958, which supportsthousands of scientists and their research. The Argen-tinian daily newspaper La Nacion said recently thatCONICET financially supports 6,000 researchers, 2,500technicians and 8,500 fellows at institutions and col-leges. Further demonstrating the importance of scienceto its agenda, the Argentinian government appointedchemist Lino Baraao its first-ever minister of science,technology and productive innovation in 2007.

This autumn, for the first time ever, TWAS is bring-ing its General Meeting to Buenos Aires, the capital of

Argentina. TWASs annual event hasbeen held in Latin America fourtimes before: in Venezuela (1990),in Mexico (2008), and twice inBrazil (1997 and 2006). This yearsmeeting will run from 1 to 4 Octo-ber, and those who come to BuenosAires for the meeting will find a

nation focused on science, engineering and technology.It can claim a range of significant scientific accomplish-ments in recent years, and it is confidently scaling upits ambitions for the future.

A LIVELY PLACE FOR LIFE SCIENCESArgentina has a longstanding tradition in the biologi-cal sciences, including three Nobel Prize winners:Bernardo Houssay, Luis Federico Leloir and Csar Mil-stein (see boxes). Leloirs work allowed Argentina toset initiatives and found institutes on molecular biolo-gy in the early 1980s. Leloir and his fellow laureatesaccomplishments served as an inspiration for Argen-tines everywhere, including for Alberto Kornblihtt, amolecular biologist with the University of BuenosAires and CONICET. Kornblihtt is a 2011 TWAS Prizewinner in the medical sciences and one of Argentinas

THE COUNTRYS COMMITMENT TO RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

HAS MADE IT A LEADER OF SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENT IN THE SOUTH.

The Leloir Institutein Buenos Aires, Argentina,at night. The instituteis a centre of biomedicalresearch foundedby Argentinian Nobellaureates Luis E. Leloirand Bernardo A. Houssay(Photo: Leloir Institute).

six foreign associates with the US National Academyof Sciences.

Undoubtedly I am a product of the Leloir school,said Kornblihtt. I did my PhD with Hctor Torres whohad done his PhD with Leloir, who in turn had done hisPhD with Houssay, and my postdoc with TWAS mem-ber Tito Baralle, who in turn hadbeen formed in the Leloir school. Inthat school I learnt a love for exper-iments and the importance of com-mitment and rigorousness.

He credited Argentinas publiceducation system for the countrysstrength in biochemistry and med-ical sciences. Our university system is an open one,he said. There are no fees for students; all throughoutthere is a principle that its open to everybody. It alsohelps that Argentina has been a free society withoutintellectual repression for 30 years. Weve had democ-racy since the end of 1983, Kornblihtt noted.

There are several researchteams working on important prob-lems in biology at the moment, Kornblihttnoted. Hugo Daniel Lujns research team at CatholicUniversity of Cordoba and CONICET has done land-mark work on controlling human parasites, such as the

single-celled giardia that wreakshavoc on the human digestive sys-tem. Andrea Gamarnik, an inde-pendent researcher for the Argen-tinian Council of Investigation, dis-covered a method the deadlyDengue virus uses to reproduce.Alejandro Schinder, at the Leloir

Institute in Buenos Aires, is one of Argentinas leadingneuroscientists, and demonstrated that neurons createdin the adult brain function in a fundamentally differentway from other neurons. Cancer researcher and 2010TWAS Prize winner Gabriel Rabinovic has publishedimportant contributions on the biology of malignant

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CONICEThas done landmark

research on controllinghuman parasites.

BERNARDO A. HOUSSAY, NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE, 1947

Houssay (18871971) won the Nobel prize for his discovery of how pituitary hormones regulate blood sug-ar while working for the Institute for Biology and Experimental Medicine in Buenos Aires.

Houssay entered the School of Pharmacy of the University of Buenos Aires at the age of 14 and just three years lat-er took a job with the Department of Physiology. By 1910, he became a physiology professor in the universitys veteri-nary medicine school. He became a physiology professor in 1919 at the Medical School at Buenos Aires University.

He worked in almost every field of physiology, having a special interest in the endocrine glands. He worked onmany other topics in physiology and pharmacology, including the physiology of circulation and respi-ration, the processes of immunity, the nervous system, digestion, and snake and spider venoms.He also had an active role promoting education and science research in his home country.Houssay was also the first-ever director of the National Scientific and Technical ResearchCouncil, the main Argentinian government agency that supports Argentinian science.

cells in Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology and Can-cer Cell. Kornblihtts lab at the University of BuenosAires has been recognized for its work in gene expres-sion and how a single gene can generate multiple pro-teins the molecules that travel between genes andother biological structures, with papers in Cell, NatureStructural and Molecular Biologyand Molecular Cell.

Argentinian scientists alsohave an important part in scienceinstitutions around the world.

The Howard Hughes MedicalInstitute had grant programmemany years ago for Canada andcertain countries in LatinAmerica, including Argentina,said Kornblihtt. Those programmes were five-yeargrants very competitive. For years, Argentina hadalmost as many resident scholars as Canada. TodaySchinder and Kornblihtt are two of the 13 senior inter-national scholars of the institute.

Some major findings in agri-cultural technology have alsobeen made through Argentinianscience. A study by biologist JosEstvez of the University of Buenos Aires and CONICETon how sugars affect plant growth was published by

Science in 2011. Also, Raquel Chansteam at the Agrobiotechnology Insti-tute of the Universidad del Litorallast year was able to use genes fromsunflowers, one of Argentinas majorcrops, to make a more resilient strainof corn. Argentina is also home toInstituto Nacional de TecnologaAgropecuaria (INTA), a governmentagency founded in 1956 that is dedi-

cated to agricultural technology research, studying arange of plants from crops to forest trees. In an inter-view with the Argentinian journal Revista de Investiga-ciones Agropecuarias, Baraao called INTA one of thepillars of scientific and technological activity in our

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Left: A sunflower field in La Pampa, Argentina.Sunflowers are a major crop in Argentina (Photo:Wikimedia/Claudio Elias). Close right: A surface detectorat the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, 1.4kilometres above sea level (Photo: Pierre AugerObservatory). Center right: A close-up view of a telescopemirror and camera in a Pierre Auger Observatoryfluorescence detector (Photo: Pierre Auger Observatory).Far right: Argentinas National Atomic Energy Commissionin Buenos Aires (Photo: Wikimedia/Pepe Robles).

LUIS F. LELOIR, NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY, 1970

Leloir (19061987) won the Nobel prize for identifying and isolating specific sugar molecules with a role inbuilding carbohydrates while working at the Institute for Biochemical Research in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

His findings proved important for treating a genetic metabolic disorder called galactosemia. The disease inter-feres with the bodys ability to use a sugar called galactose to make energy, and can lead to liver, brain, kidneyand eye damage in infants.

Leloir received most of his education at the University of Buenos Aires, and started his scientific career work-ing with Bernardo A. Houssay in 1932. His career flourished, and he did biochemical research inCambridge before returning to Buenos Aires. He was a Founding Fellow of TWAS.

Houssay and Leloir founded a major biochemistry research centre known as the LeloirInstitute. It is now connected to the University of Buenos Aires.

Argentina is in therunning for the

Cherenkov TelescopeArray, the location forwhich will be decidedby November 2013.

country that carries out good basic research combinedwith irreplaceable outreach activities.

REACHING FOR THE SKYArgentina also holds a prominent place in the physicaland space sciences. Argentina is part of the six-nationconsortium behind the Gemini Project, which is build-ing, installing, commissioning and operating two new8.1 metre diametre optical and infrared telescopes,one in Hawaii, the other in Chile. Argentinianastronomers involved with Gemini receive 2.5% of theobservation time available for their own studies, saidFederico Snchez of the Institute of Technology inDetection and Astroparticles (ITeDA).

But thats just a small element of the space sciencein Argentina the country is also home to the PierreAuger Observatory, the worlds largest cosmic rayobservatory, aiming to discover the origin of the mostenergetic particles in the universe so far observed fromEarth.

Cosmic rays are mostly protons and more complexatomic nuclei that hail from deep space and largelyoriginate either from supermassive black holes at thecentres of distant galaxies or stars that died in hugeexplosions. They travel near the speed of light to theEarth and produce cascades of other particles whenentering the atmosphere. One cosmic ray can producemillions of those other particles spanning several kilo-metres on the Earths surface.

In 1992, American nuclear physicist James Croninand British astrophysicist Alan Watson wanted to build

the best cosmic ray observatory ever conceived,Snchez said. The Southern Hemisphere happens topresent the best view of the Galactic centre the rota-tional centre of the Milky Way. The observatorys plan-ners also needed enough space, over 3,000 square kilo-metres over a large flat area for cosmic ray detectors.Finally, they needed the sky above to contain fewclouds and a quiet atmosphere. Several workshops lat-er, there were three candidates for host countries,Australia, South Africa and Argentina and an interna-tional panel selected Malarge, Argentina.

Since then, the Pierre Auger Observatory has pro-duced standout results in the study of cosmic rays.Today the Observatory has more than 490 scientistsfrom all over the world and about 30 Argentinian sci-entists are members of the collaboration.

The success of the Pierre Auger Observatorydemonstrated that Argentina was a country trustableto host large scientific astrophysical projects, saidSnchez. In this sense, it opened the door to otherproposals to consider Argentina as a host country.

Some of these new projects, such as the EuropeanSpace Agencys Deep Space Antenna, are already builtand installed in Argentina. Argentina is also in the run-ning for the Cherenkov Telescope Array, the locationfor which will be decided by November 2013.

The conditions for science in Argentina improvedquite substantially over the decades, said Juan PabloPaz, a quantum physicist with the University of BuenosAires who won last years TWAS Prize in physics for hiswork on the loss of quantum information into its envi-

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ronment. People are going abroad for postdocs andare returning back to work here. The number of stu-dents graduating increased substantially. There is zerounemployment in physics nowadays, and there is moremoney flowing into science.

Physics became a major field in Argentina in the1950s, Paz said. At the time, the government haddeveloped the National Atomic Energy Commission ina push to develop nuclear power. Now, there are morethan 10 universities where people can get a degree inphysics in Argentina, and most have a PhD pro-gramme. The largest universities are Buenos Aires,Cordoba, La Plata and the Balseiro Institute in Bar-iloche. In Buenos Aires, which hasthe largest physics department inArgentina, more than 20 PhD stu-dents graduate with a physicsdegree every year.

There are about 1,500 physi-cists working at the moment in thecountry and they work at a numberof institutions, mostly owned bythe state, said Paz. Research in private companiesdoes exist but is not the main player here. Research inuniversities suffered a lot during military dictatorshipsas it was viewed as dangerous to mix scientists withstudents and politics. But that past seems to be overand, especially during the last 10 years, there arerather good conditions for science in universities.

Many physicists were involved in the developmentof the Argentinian company INVAP in the 1970s, noted

Paz. INVAP recently designed and built a satellite calledSAC-D that launched in 2011 and carried NASA equip-ment called Aquarius, which measures global oceansalinity. INVAP, Paz noted, also builds high-tech radarsand exports nuclear reactors (see box on page 21.)

DOWN TO EARTH SCIENCEEarth scientists from Argentina have contributed inthree major issues during recent decades, includingleading research on the tectonic evolution of theAndes, which are still growing from the effects of thetectonic interaction along South Americas west coast.

The Earth science field also has economic use, saidVictor Alberto Ramos, a geologistwith the University of Buenos Aireswho studies Andes formation. Thestudy of the Andes fuels the findingand mining of giant copper andgold mines of Argentina and Chile,as well as the oil fields all along theAndean foothills from Colombia toPatagonia, said Ramos.

The Earth Sciences, mainly geology, was one of thefirst disciplines taught in the School of Sciences of theUniversidad de Buenos Aires, as early as 1865, saidRamos. There are 14 geology departments in Argenti-na, including large ones in Buenos Aires, La Plata, Cr-doba, Salta and Tucumn. These departments, he said,have staffs of over 40 people.

Argentina also has a long history of natural hazardssuch as earthquakes and volcanoes and has developed

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With more rainfall insome areas and warmer,drier weather in others,Argentina is focusedon climate science.

Right: Headquarters ofthe Research Centre of the Seaand Atmosphere (CIMA) andthe French-Argentinian Institutefor Climate Studies and itsImpacts (UMI-IFAECI) in BuenosAires. Far right: (from left) CIMAand UMI-IFAECI director CarolinaVera talks with Virna Mecciaand Fernanda Cabre, formerlyPhD students at CIMA(Photos: CIMA).

several institutes to monitor them. The recent 2011Maule mega-earthquake shook and moved the city ofBuenos Aires 3 to 4 centimetres in a few hours, Ramosnoted. Based on more than hundred years of experience,our scientists and technicians have developed networks ofseismic detection as well as volcanological observato-ries to mitigate those natural disasters, he said.

Argentina is also keeping on top of atmospheric,oceanic, and climate sciences through Argentinianorganizations, the Research Centre of the Sea andAtmosphere (CIMA) and the French-Argentinian Insti-tute for Climate Studies and its Impacts (UMI-IFAECI).

Climate-related investigations have remarkablygrown worldwide and in particular in Argentina duringthe past decades, said Carolina Vera, an atmosphericscientist and director of both CIMA and UMI-IFAECI. Itis now possible for climate scientists to monitor, simu-late and project global climate with unprecedentedaccuracy so that climate information can be used fordecision-making.

CIMA researches how to numerically simulate andpredict atmospheric and ocean processes. Since 2010,CIMA became a part of UMI-IFAECI, an internationalunit jointly sponsored by Centre national de la recherchscientifique (CNRS) of France, CONICET and the Uni-versity of Buenos Aires. The French-Argentinian Insti-tute works to simulate and predict climate variabilityand change, as well as their impacts in southern South

America and surrounding oceans. It also fosters studieson how climate variability and change will impact pop-ulation, biodiversity, production and vulnerability.

Argentina has good reason to have a stake in climatescience, said Vera. More warm-season rainfall in the cen-tral lowlands of Argentina has partly led to agriculturalregions shifting from grazing animals to farmland in the20th century, and modern climate models are projectingthose regions will have increasingly wetter summers,which will continue to influence agricultural trends.Meanwhile, in the southern-most region of Argentina,projections expect a warmer, drier climate, which couldcause glaciers to further retreat in the region, affectingan important source of fresh water in the country.

The Institutes staff includes 47 researchers withpositions. In the last four years, 14 postdocs performedresearch at the unit, 76 PhD students performed theirthesis work, and 35 master-level students have alsodone their theses in climate science. Between 2010and 2013, a total of 254 articles were published in ref-ereed journals. UMI-IFAECI researchers also have lead-ership roles in international panels and programmeslike International Panel on Climate Change. UMI-IFAECI (is) a very powerful research pole not only ofrelevance in Argentina, but also at the internationallevel, Vera said.

> Sean Treacy

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CSAR MILSTEIN, NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE, 1984

Milstein (19272002) won the Nobel prize for his work on the laboratory production ofmonoclonal antibodies, an extremely useful medical tool with applications ranging fromdrugs to diagnostics.

In Les Prix Nobel, a yearbook published by The Nobel Foundation, he credited his immigrantparents with the sacrifices that made his academic life possible. He had a prosperous career in the biochemistryof enzymes, but government persecution of scientists and intellectuals interfered with his work and forced him toleave Argentina in 1963 for Cambridge in the United Kingdom. There, Milsteins research interests shifted fromenzymes to the immune system. At MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, he did landmark work in immunology,discovering a means to produce monoclonal antibodies.

Milstein was an Associate Founding Fellow of TWAS. His work was characterized as the most importantimmunological advance of the century in a commentary by Abraham Karpas, the assistant director of research atCambridges Department of Haematology, for a 2002 edition of the British magazine Times Higher Education. Thework opened numerous new and unforeseen avenues for research, many with medical implications, Karpas wrote.

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In a garden outside the library atthe Instituto Balseiro, there is anapple tree that is a direct descendantof the English tree that, nearly 350years ago, gave Isaac Newton hisflash of insight about gravity. It is nota grand monument, nor is it con-spicuous, and yet it is a powerful reminder of the sci-entific and engineering aspirations on this campus in theArgentinian foothills of the Andes.

Far from Princeton and Berkeley, far from Stuttgartand Paris, Balseiro has become a centre of physics,nuclear engineering and other fields. Its students andresearchers are admired throughout Latin America andin the world capitals of science, and with sustainedsupport from the Argentinian government, they havehelped the Institute achieve a deep impact throughoutthe nations educational system, its government and itssurging technology enterprises.

Manuel Cardona, one of theworlds most influential physicists,calls it a very special place. Whatmakes it special? The strong selec-tion of the entering students, hesays. The location in a beautiful,but strongly isolated place, almost

2,000 kilometres from the very large and restless capi-tal of Buenos Aires. The connections with the devel-oped world, which provide opportunities to its gradu-ates and students. And the tradition the awarenessthat many graduates have made it in the best institu-tions of the world and are worthy of emulation.

Argentina has a long history of excellence inscience, but as TWAS convenes its 24th General Meet-ing in Buenos Aires, the nations scientific work andenergy are surging. And the accomplishments at Insti-tuto Balseiro are an important source of strength andconfidence.TW

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FEATURE

BALSEIRO:A SPECIAL PLACEFOR GLOBAL SCIENCE

IN AN IDYLLIC SETTING, ARGENTINAS INSTITUTO BALSEIRO

HAS BECOME A CENTRE OF WORLD-CLASS SCIENCE. ITS CHARACTER AND

CREATIVITY, HOWEVER, ARE DISTINCTLY LATIN AMERICAN.

The nation is building satellites for NASA andresearch nuclear reactors for nations around theworld. It is a leading force in fields ranging from agri-culture to biotechnology and nanotechnology. It is aglobal centre for the study of high-energy cosmic rays.And the Instituto Balseiro the IB, for short has a rolein many of these accomplishments.

People who know Balseiro also see somethingalmost intangible that sets it apart a creative streakthat shapes the culture of the place and the peoplewho spend time there.

The Institutes website puts it simply: Estudiar en elIB es diferente. Study at Instituto Balseiro is different.

TURBULENT TIMES, A PROTECTED PLACECardona, a Spaniard by birth and now also German, isone of the most cited physicists of modern times, andhe helped found the Max Planck Institute of Solid StateResearch in Stuttgart. He hosted a number of Balseirograduates there and when he was on the faculty ofBrown University in the United States. He also haswritten about the Institutes history.

He offers an unvarnished view of how it was born:In the years after World War II, an Austrian chemistpersuaded Argentinian president Juan Pern that hehad invented a way to produce energy at low costthrough nuclear fusion. Perns government made a

significant investment in theHuemul Project, a complexof laboratories and researchfacilities in the small Patag-onian city of Bariloche. Butas Cardona tells it, the fraudwas discovered and attributedto the lack of [scientific] com-petency in the country.

A group of researchers, including physicist JosAntonio Balseiro, persuaded Peron that if Argentinawanted to prevent a repetition of the embarrassingchapter, it had to train scientists. Vacated real estateand labs were available and the recently createdNational Atomic Energy Commission (Comisin Nacio-nal de Energa Atmica, or CNEA) allocated funds. In1955, the new Instituto de Fsica de Bariloche wasfounded. Balseiro was appointed director; after hisdeath in 1962, it was renamed Instituto Balseiro.

Today, CNEA operates the Centro AtmicoBariloche; the Instituto operates within the Centro. TheNational University at Cuyo provides Balseiros aca-demic framework.

Through the years, a long period of political repres-sion and waves of economic crisis have driven manygraduates and faculty to work in Brazil and Chile, or inthe United States and Europe. At the same time,

though, many Argentinian scien-tists and engineers found a refugein Bariloche. The small city is sur-

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The SAC-D satellite under contruction atINVAP, a spin-off of the Balseiro Institute. People who know

Balseiro see somethingthat sets it apart: acreative streak thatshapes the culture.

rounded by Nahuel HuapiNational Park. Among thefounders and later facultymembers, there was a great

interest in music, literatureand religion. The distance fromBuenos Aires at least 90 min-utes by plane, and up to 20

hours by car created a strong sense of community.Bariloche is geographically isolated from the rest

of the world, says physicist Alberto Rojo, who earnedhis PhD at the Instituto in the late 1980s and early1990s. So far south, it was protected from the politi-cal oscillations of Argentinas Dirty War [in the1970s]. Given these factors, Rojo said, students andfaculty find a sense of monastic enclosure, whichmakes it interesting as an incubator of creativity.

THE COMPONENTS OF SUCCESSOver the course of almost 60 years, IB faculty and stu-dents have achieved remarkable accomplishments andindividual influence.

Leopoldo Falicov was in the first graduating class ofphysicists in 1958, and went on to a career of greatinfluence and many honors as a theoretical physicistand teacher. For many years he was based at the Uni-versity of California at Berkeley, but he was knownfor building expansive networks ofscientists from throughout LatinAmerica. He was known as well for

his love of poetry, literature and music. Among manyawards and prizes, he was elected to Argentinas Aca-demia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales;the US National Academy of Sciences; and TWAS.

Juan Martn Maldacena earned his undergraduatedegree from Balseiro in 1991; his work on quantumgravity, string theory and related fields has made himone of the worlds most influential theoretical physi-cists. He won a genius grant from the MacArthurFoundation in the United States; he also has won theSackler Prize and the Dirac Medal. Since 2001, he hasbeen a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study inPrinceton, New Jersey.

Rojo is not only an extensively published physicist,but also a premier guitarist who has recorded with topLatin American musical artists. He created andappeared in the Argentinian television series Artistasde la ciencia (Artists of science) and has written exten-sively on the intersection of science, music, literatureand poetry. Now on the faculty of Oakland Universityin Michigan (United States), he also has conductedmany public engagement events that feature bothmusic and science.

Today, Instituto Balseiro has about 150 facultymembers in engineering and 100 in physics. Amongthem are many with close ties to the Abdus SalamInternational Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste,

Italy, and winners of many of themost important science prizes inArgentina and the world.

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Excellent facilitiesand top faculty makethe institute a draw

for students throughoutLatin America.

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INVAP: ARGENTINAS GLOBAL SCIENCE ALL-STAR

It is difficult to get a firm measure of Instituto Balseiros impact on Argentinas economy no study has ever beendone. But a private company spun off of the Institute in the 1970s is building satellites for NASA and nuclearresearch reactors for the international market, and it clearly is a powerful force for economic growth and inno-vation.

The company INVAP traces its roots to the early 1970s, when Balseiro graduate Conrado F. Varotto retunedfrom a postdoc at Stanford University in California (United States). He persuaded leaders of Argentinas NationalAtomic Energy Commission (CNEA) to create a department, comprised mostly of other Balseiro graduates, to doresearch and development and provide services to industry. INVAP emerged from this department in 1976, ownedby the Province of Rio Negro and Argentinas federal government, but with the authority to operate independently.

Among members of the founding team was Balseiro graduate Hctor E. Otheguy, now INVAPs general man-ager and chief executive officer. The culture of excellence cultivated at the Institute was transferred to INVAPfrom the very beginning under Dr. Varottos leadership, Otheguy said in an email interview.

INVAP today is working on projects that cross disciplines and applications: robotics, food freeze-drying, alter-native energy and radiotherapy facilities for the treatment of cancer. But its most prominent work and perhapsits signature accomplishments are in nuclear engineering, satellite work and radar technology.

Otheguy reports that INVAPs annual revenues amount to USD200 million, up sixfold from USD35 million in2003. It currently employs 1,100 scientists and technical personnel, up from 350 ten years ago. Another 500 areemployed by companies subcontracted for various projects.

Nuclear projects were prominent almost from the start. A small research nuclear reactor designed and built byINVAP, called RA6, went online in 1982 for training nuclear engineers at Instituto Balseiro. The next year, thecompany completed a uranium enrichment facility for CNEA, making Argentina one of few nations to have mas-tered that process. That was followed by a research nuclear reactor for Peru, and then by reactors for researchand production of radioisotopes in Algeria in 1988, Egypt in 1998 and Australia in 2006. Currently, Otheguysaid, INVAP is designing research reactors for Brazil and Argentina.

Having gained experience and success in such areas, INVAP expanded into other fields, including aerospace,all in a framework of homegrown technology development.

In the early 1990s, the company designed and built four satellites for Argentinas space agency, the ComisinNacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE), within a joint CONAE-NASA agreement. In 2011, Argentinareached a milestone: The SAC-D satellite built by INVAP was launched into orbit carrying NASAs USD287 mil-lion Aquarius Earth-observation system, designed to measure ocean surface salinity for predictingfuture climate conditions.

Obviously the involvement of NASA in Argentinas satellite-building capacity is a sourceof pride for INVAP and CONAE, Otheguy said. That NASA should place its trust in satelliteplatform SAC-D, designed and built by us is indeed a symbolic statement about the advanceof science and technology in Argentina.

INVAP is currently engaged in a number of advanced projects, including geostationarycommunications satellites for Argentina, air traffic surveillance radars, state-of-the-art 3Dradar for the nations Defense Ministry and a full digital TV network for Venezuela.

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In part because the Institutooperates under ArgentinasAtomic Centre at Bariloche, itoffers the highly advancedequipment in both physicsand nuclear science, includ-

ing particle accelerators, a col-lection of advanced microscopes,a nanofabrication laboratory,cryogenic facilities for studying

condensed matter at low temperatures, and the smallRA6 research reactor.

That makes IB a draw for students from throughoutLatin America and sometimes Europe. The competitionis intense: After two years at an undergraduate institu-tion, students take IBs rigorous entry exam. AlexFainstein, deputy director for physics, said the processyields a class of 5060 new undergraduates every yearin physics, nuclear engineering, mechanical engineer-ing and now telecommunications engineering. In addi-tion, there are about 20 new masters degree studentsand 20 PhD students each year.

All of the students receive fellowships, which payfor education, housing and food, plus extensive relat-ed support. In Balseiros close-knit community, theyhave access even to high-level faculty members andresearch opportunities. But the place demands hardwork.

Usually people who come here are very commit-ted, said Fainstein. Theres a collective response...akind of ambience that makes them work very hard.Everybody wants to get the most out of themselves.

PROJECTS AT THE FRONTIER OF GLOBAL SCIENCESWhen the Institute was created and in ensuing years,says Fainstein, its main focus was on physics, engineer-ing and related fields that were critical for the imple-mentation of the nuclear engineering sector in the

late 1970s. In the 1980s, interests increased to includehigh-temperature superconductivity and other fields.

Nuclear engineering currently remains central toBalseiros mission, says former director and currentfaculty member Jos V. Lolich. As part of Argentinasnuclear infrastructure, staff at Balseiro and its spin-offcompany, INVAP, have been involved in buildingnuclear power projects in Argentina. They also havedeveloped nuclear research reactors for Egypt, Algeriaand Australia (see box on INVAP on page 21).

In the past decade, nanoscience has been promi-nent, and recently very interesting applications in themedical field are emerging, said Ingo Allekotte, pres-ent head of the physics department. A radiotherapyand nuclear medicine centre now under construction isexpected to provide a platform for research in medicaldiagnostics and the use of different types of radiationto treat cancer, brain diseases and other conditions.

Allekotte himself is deputy project manager of thePierre Auger Observatory, an international facilityestablished to detect and study ultra-high-energy cos-mic rays. The project involves a new USD53 millioncentre and the work of more than 500 physicists fromaround the world; its detection technology is spreadover 3,000 square kilometres in western Argentina.

One wants to understand what produces thesehigh-energy particles, how they propagate and soforth, he explained. In the end, you get knowledge why this phenomenon occurs and how it occurs. And itcan lead you to develop new technologies.

THE POWER OF INTERNATIONAL NETWORKSIn spite of its isolation, the Instituto Balseiro is the hub ofa vibrant global network. Its evident in the studentbody, where 1015% of students are from other LatinAmerican nations, and in dozens of alumni who teachand work worldwide. Longstanding ties connect IB withmajor science centres in France, Germany, Spain and the

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Alex Fainstein

United States, and also with Brazil, India, Japan andother nations. The United Nations-based InternationalAtomic Energy Commission (IAEA) also is a close part-ner. Lolich, for example, serves on an IAEA panel that isstudying security at nuclear research reactors. Ral O.Barrachina, a former Balseiro director who currentlyserves on the faculty while holding posts with CNEA andCentro Atmico Bariloche, cites a 2010 IAEA meeting inPeru that created the Latin-American Network for Edu-cation in Nuclear Technology.

Indeed, the joint researchprojects with Latin American coun-tries may be critically important forbuilding research capacity in thedeveloping region.

Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Co-lombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peruand Venezuela have joined in the Large Aperture GammaRay Observatory (LAGO), which studies gamma and cos-mic rays captured at high-altitude sites in three LatinAmerican nations. Allekotte cites the projects very closeties to Balseiro: Balseiro personnel are among the prin-cipal LAGO researchers. Student lab work has helped torefine the kind of detectors used in the LAGO project.

As another example, Barrachina noted Balseirosmasters degree in medical physics, where more thanhalf of the graduates come from other countries in Lat-in America and the Caribbean Region.

Fainstein explained that Argentinas commitmentto Latin American networks reflects the nations broadsupport of science and engineering. Balseiro is a micro-cosm for the new commitment.

When I studied here, he recalled, we were asmall community trying to be the best graduates wecould be, but it wasnt always clear what the graduateswould do. Generally, people would go abroad. Now,the situation has changed. With a huge demand for

engineers, Balseiro students oftenare pulled into the Argentinian jobmarket and onto big projects before they get a PhD.

The campus, too, has beentransformed. We have doubled thebuilt area in the past five years,we have built as much as in the

previous 53 years. We have so many new buildings:research buildings, a new library, two new buildingsfor student labs. Ten years ago, we did not have moneyto paint the walls. Now people come back here andthey dont recognize it.

Fainstein would like to see the student body grow,too. But he cautions that growth must be carefullymanaged to maintain Balseiros standards. Yes, we aregrowing, he said. The challenge is to do it well.

> Edward W. Lempinen

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On one of her first field missionsworking alone, nutrition scien-tist Mnica Orozco ran into a prob-lem that forced her to improvise. Shehad planned to visit a rural, Mayavillage called Magdalena MilpasAtlas where she had contacts whowould help organize local people totest just-developed condiments loaded with mineralsand vitamins. The village is so remote its only accessi-ble by rocky, unpaved roads, so she arranged for some-one with a pickup truck to drive her there from thenearby town of San Miguel Milpas Atlas. But when shearrived, the driver didnt show up.

Unable to get to the village in her sedan, she need-ed to find a different Maya population for the tastetest. In San Miguel, a collection of cement buildingsand adobe houses, the residents were Maya, but shehad no local contacts to help her gather participantsand set up her analysis work.

So Orozco approached womenwho were walking by and knockedon the doors of complete strangersuntil she had a small crowd of peo-ple by the road. Then she organizedthe condiments, some water, anddocuments for note-taking in hercar trunk, converting it into a panel

for the condiment taste test. I had to do acceptabilitytrials in the back of my car, she recalled, with myparticipants testing the different samples standing onthe side of the street. By the end, she had gatheredthe data she needed.

Such is the life of the researchers fightingGuatemalas deep-seated malnutrition problem, whosometimes must conduct scientific trials and evenblood tests from the backs of vehicles, the tops of pic-nic tables, and peoples back yards.

Last year, Orozco won the TWAS Prize for YoungScientists in Developing Countries for her nutritionTW

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FEATURE

MIXING SCIENCEINTO TRADITIONAL

FLOURTO HELP GUATEMALANS CONSUME IMPORTANT NUTRIENTS,

SCIENTISTS HAVE TO BE SENSITIVE TO LOCAL CULTURAL PRACTICES,

SAY NUTRITION RESEARCHERS

research work in Guatemala. Since 1986, TWAS haspartnered with national organizations to recognize sci-entists under the age of 40 whose work is already mak-ing an impact. TWAS also provides prize money, up toUSD2,000, while national organi-zations in this case Academia deCiencias Mdicas, Fsicas y Naturalesde Guatemala select the recipi-ents. So far, 501 scientists havereceived the prize. Orozco, who is38, is the 10th recipient fromGuatemala, and the second recipi-ent from The Centre for Studies ofSensory Impairment, Aging and Metabolism (CeSSI-AM), a non-governmental, non-profit organizationdedicated to nutrition research and education inGuatemala. Gabriela Montenegro Bethancourt was thefirst CeSSIAM scientist to win the prize in 2010.

Orozco said the recognition from the prize helpedher receive a promotion to director of the Centre forthe Studies of Lake Atitln, an external campus of theUniversidad del Valle de Guatemala, where she is a

chemistry and nutrition profes-sor. The Prize came in at a cru-cial point because I was in greatneed of a change in my profession-al life, she said.

Guatemala has one of the high-est chronic malnutrition rates in the world, and theworst nutrition ranking in all of Latin America, partic-ularly for women and children. According to the USGlobal Health Initiative, the maternal death rates inrural Guatemala, where malnourished mothers rely onmidwives to deliver their babies, are also high: up tofive times higher in some areas than in Guatemala City.

One way to help fix the problem is by supplyingfood that is either fortified, with extra nutrients added

directly into the recipe, or bioforti-fied, using crops bred or engineeredto increase their nutritional value.The Guatemalan government regu-larly delivers fortified foods to itspeople. Corn flour, for example, isused by rural populations for tor-tillas, and researchers can mixessential vitamins and minerals that

are absent from local peoples normal diets iron, zinc,vitamin D, B vitamins into corn flour. Fortified cornflour is a focal point of Orozcos current research.

But studying malnutrition and whether efforts tocontrol it are working can be exceptionally difficult.Many of the communities that scientists and aid workerswant to help only have dirt roads, lack basic servicessuch as sewers, and dont even have a local elementaryschool. Often the communities visited by nutrition scien-

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Corn flour usedfor tortillas can serveas a way to administer

missing nutrientsto rural populations.

Mnica OrozcoAbove: A scientist for the Center for Studies of SensoryImpairment, Aging and Metabolism (CeSSIAM) interviewsa Guatemalan mother for a health survey (Photo courtesyof CeSSIAM). Right: Nutritionist Mnica Orozco (far right) wonthe TWAS Prize for research into ways to support the healthof rural Guatemalans by fortifying traditional foods withmicro-nutrients (Photo courtesy Mnica Orozco).

tists even lack a clinic, and the only way they can getdata is to set camp. All youll have is a familys back-yard, and you have a picnic table, and you have to figureout how to get those blood samples, Orozco said.

Were used to it and we know what to expect, saidOrozco. In the best cases, youll find a house, a field, ayard, a health centre or a community auditorium towork in. But that doesnt always happen.

FOR WOMEN, BY WOMENOrozco started her biology career in a forensics lab,collecting and analysing evidence from crime scenes.But it was stressful to regularly see scenes of horridviolence. Its very harsh because you see the most hor-rible things you can imagine.

She decided to pursue her masters degree and aresearch career instead. She began her nutrition workat CeSSIAM, working to create and test fortified foodssuch as condiments and corn flour. She grew passion-ate about it, she recalled, because in addition to labwork, she was able to interact with people in the ruralvillages of Guatemala.

CeSSIAMs focus hasnt always been nutrition. Atits founding in 1985, the organization studied the biol-ogy of ageing in a developing country where few growold. Its founders were largelydrawn to Guatemala for the chanceto conduct independent research,said CeSSIAM director and co-founder Noel Solomons.

CeSSIAM now only has femaleresearchers on the staff, which ispart of the feminist objective. Fora long time, women couldntbecome doctors in Guatemala,Solomons recalled. But in the early 1980s, UniversidadFrancisco Marroqun de Guatemala became the firstGuatemalan medical school to open its doors towomen and graduated its first combined male andfemale class in 1985. Even still, no Guatemalan hospi-tals would hire women as resident physicians, he said.By sheer coincidence, CeSSIAM was founded thatsame year. We harvested the best and the brightest ofthat first class and thats how we started off with somevery upstanding women.

Among their early recruits were Carmen Castaeda

Sceppa, now an exercise science professor at North-eastern University in the Boston, Mass., and CarolinaBarillas-Mury, who now leads the Mosquito Immunityand Vector Competence Section at the US NationalInstitutes of Health Laboratory of Malaria and VectorResearch.

CeSSIAM currently focuses on the nutritional prob-lems faced by women and children in Guatemala, notonly because pregnant mothers need more nutrients,but because children battle for growth in first sixmonths when they should be exclusively consumingtheir mothers milk. The situation is made worsebecause the patriarchal culture typically leads to mengetting the most food at each familys dinner table.

The women are usually at the bottom of the pyra-mid, Orozco said. So the researchers at CeSSIAMbuild relationships with community leaders the localwomen trust typically midwives. You can work withthem directly.

FORTIFYING FOOD, EMPOWERING COMMUNITIESThe Central American food manufacturer, DEMA-GUSA, approached Orozco and her colleagues in 2011to design a fortified flour for indigenous populations inthe Guatemalan highlands. But while the team had

data on how much flour the indige-nous populations ate, that didntmean the rural people would will-ingly eat whatever fortified flourthe researchers handed them.

You can spend a lot of timedesigning the perfect formula, butif people dont actually eat it because they dont like it, becauseit tastes funny, because when you

make the tortilla it doesnt work well its useless,Orozco said. You cant go to a community and justimpose your vision and expect them to do whateveryou tell them to. You have to empower them to createtheir own solutions.

CeSSIAM did interviews with 150 highland womento hear their opinions of the fortified flour they creat-ed. They learned that, not only did the women thinkthe homegrown corn was more nutritious than the for-tified flour, but that some of them even look down onthose who use it.

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You cant go toa community and justimpose your vision.You have to empowerthem to create their

own solutions.

When you make tortillas from the raw corn, youhave to grow the corn, cut it down, get the grains, putthem to dry. Then you have to go to the mill, mill it toprepare the dough, Orozco said. And then you maketortillas. That takes a lot of work. So there is a percep-tion that women who use these flours are lazy anddont want to do all that work.

As it stands, Orozco is still planning to test the flouron a group of women breastfeeding their babies, to seehow it affects the nutrients in the milk that help pro-tect infants from diseases.

The other primary focus of Orozcos work is ontracing the effects of iron supplements, a frequenttreatment for anemic populations. While about 35% ofwomen in Guatemala are anemic, the government isgiving iron supplements to everyone whether theyhave an iron deficiency or not, said Orozco. Her cur-rent work in CeSSIAM is investigating what happens tothose who are taking the supplement but dont need it.

FOODS THAT FIT THE LOCAL CULTUREWhat Orozco and her colleagues encounter in the fielddepends on how much aid the community has receivedin the past. While some communities are accustomedto food aid and already expect it, she said, many ruralareas have never received food aid and are distrustful.The great challenge for nutritionists is to provide mal-nourished communities with the nutrients they needwhile convincing them they wont lose their traditionalview of the world.

Guatemala contains 22 different ethnic groups,each with their own language and traditions, andsometimes their approach to food and health is based

on beliefs that, while detached from science, dictatetheir lives.

For example, the people of some Maya communitiesbelieve that disease is caused by a temperature imbal-ance. When you get sick, its because your body hasslipped into being too hot or cold. They also believedifferent foods heat or cool the body, though thatjudgment has little to do with the literal temperature ofthe food. That criteria are instead passed down throughthe generations as folk wisdom: If you have a hot dis-ease like a fever, you cool down by eating cold foodslike black beans or fish. If you have a cold disease likethe chills, you might warm up with chili peppers.

The problem for nutritionists emerges when thisingrained view of how the world works disrupts thediets of people theyre trying to help. But efforts tobuild a healthier Guatemala havent always takenthese worldviews into account. If you want food secu-rity, you have to use their terms, Orozco said. Whatworks in Brazil or Venezuela isnt going to work here.

For example, Orozco noted, the Guatemalan earth-quake in 1976 left 23,000 dead, thousands injured,and thousands more homeless. Several countriesresponded by sending food aid, including powderedmilk, to the countrys western highlands. Then peopleused it to paint their houses white. Years later, foreignaid workers tried to introduce soybeans to Maya com-munities, but the people there had never seen a soy-bean plant, didnt know how to prepare it, and didnt

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care for the flavour. So they used the soybeans to feedtheir pigs and cows.

The whole project was a failure, she said,because it wasnt culturally acceptable.

URBAN PROBLEMSMost of Guatemalas population isrural, setting the nation apart frommost of Latin America. That distinc-tion actually led to the urban popu-lations of Guatemala being neglect-ed by researchers and aid workers,Solomons recalled. People had thisnotion of being like safari-helmeted anthropologists, sothey jumped out into the countryside where the pictur-esque people were, he said, and nobody had studiedurban settings.

Urban life among low-income Guatemalans alsopresents a unique set of problems. Nutrition researcherGabriela Montenegro Bethancourt, CeSSIAMs 2010TWAS Young Scientist Prize winner and the 8thGuatemalan recipient, has studied the nutritionalhealth of infants and their mothers in disadvantaged,urban settings in Guatemala.

Part of Montenegros research has focused onencouraging breastfeeding by Guatemalan mothers.

One study she conducted showed that while 85% ofurban mothers breastfed their infants, they rarely everbreastfed them exclusively.

It is important to breastfeed newborns exclusivelyfor their first six months because the practice can helpshore up the childs immune system against diseases,which is especially important in regions where sanita-

tion is lax, Montenegro said. Moth-ers who give their infants the localwater expose them to diseasesinstead. If its not well-washedand disinfected, she explained,the child gets infected and getsdiarrhea.

She said doctors and healthpractitioners in Guatemala dont

always reinforce the scientific guidelines about exclu-sive breastfeeding and adequate feeding practices, andthats part of the problem. The best they could do is tryto reinforce their knowledge with public and person-to-person talks for mothers, Montenegro said.Guatemalan mothers in urban low-income communi-ties also often start having children too young, and theonly way to fix it is with educational programmes, saidMontenegro. The moms are interested in knowing.They ask you many things that you can answer. So Ithink its important that you educate people.

> Sean Treacy

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It is importantto breastfeed newborns

for their firstsix months to build

their immune systems.

Above: The Center for Studies of Sensory Impairment, Agingand Metabolism (CeSSIAM) focuses on helping women andchildren acquire the nutrients they need. Right: (from left)CeSSIAM scientist Mnica Orozco; Klaus Schmann, president,Hildegard Grunow Foundation for Nutrition Research; CeSSIAMscientist Liza Hernandez; CeSSIAM director Noel Solomonsand CeSSIAM scientist Gabriela Montenegro-Bethancourtin 2009 (Photos: CeSSIAM).

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For young scientists at the earlystages of their careers, access to amentor with a lifetime of experienceand knowledge is priceless. But,while such brilliant minds in everyscientific field live and work through-out the developing world, promisingyoung scientists dont always have thefinancial resources they need to tap thatexpertise.

Latin America is a region rich with expertise inmany fields, where young scientists from all over theworld can nurture their scientific knowledge, establishprofessional bonds and gain a challenging but irre-placeable new experience living and working in anoth-er country even another continent. TWAS givesyoung scientists such opportunities through its post-doctoral and PhD fellowships. These programmesallow young scientists from one developing country to

conduct research in another nationin the South with equipment andmentorship that would normally beunavailable to them.

The Academy awards these fel-lowships in partnership with numer-

ous organizations globally, two ofthem in Latin America: the National

Council for Scientific and TechnologicalDevelopment (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvi-

mento Cientfico e Tecnolgico, or CNPq), in Brazil, andthe National Science at Technology Council (ConsejoNacional de Ciencia y Tecnologa, or CONACyT) in Mex-ico. These councils provide living expenses and TWASprovides travel support and incidental local expenses.

Four postdoctoral scientists from as far away asIndia and Egypt show how TWAS research fellow-ships in Latin America are advancing science through-out the world. TW

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FEATURE

CONNECTINGTO LATIN AMERICANSCIENCE NETWORKS

TWAS RESEARCH FELLOWS ARE FINDING THAT POSTS IN LATIN AMERICA,

THOUGH SOMETIMES FAR FROM HOME, ARE ADVANCING

THEIR WORK ON AGRICULTURE, HEALTH, POLLUTION AND OTHER FIELDS.

FIGHTING FARM PESTSWITH THEIR OWN DISTANT KINAn Egyptian mite taxonomist in Brazil

Bright-yellow, web-spinning creatures called two-spot-ted spider mites are an unwelcome visitor in manyfarms. Theyre found on undersides of leaves and feedon plants through needle-like mouthparts that piercethe plants tissue and suck out its sap. If the mites growout of control, the leaves fall off and the plants die.The mite is found in both fields and greenhouses,devouring everything from trees to fruit and vegetablecrops.

How can farmers keep these pests under control?One answer is predatory mites, such as Phytoseiuluspersimilis, a reddish little creature that pounces on spi-der mites and feasts on them. Farmers can buy smallpackets of the helpful mites and empty them on theleaves of plants infested with harmful mites. The morepredatory mites researchers identify, the moreweapons farmers have in the battle to save their crops.

Egyptian mite taxonomist Reham Ibrahim AhmedMohamed Abo-Shnaf looks for, studies and describesnew species of predatory mites. Crop-eating mites area problem for Egyptian farmers, and Egyptian scien-tists have historically been interested in predatorymites as a solution. Over 50 phytoseiid species havebeen reported from Egypt, as well as about 25 speciesof other mites. But Egyptian researchers who havebeen studying them for decades are either retired orabout to retire, said Abo-Shnaf, so there is a need foryounger researchers to fill those gaps.

Abo-Shnaf said she is particularly fond of taxonomyand happy to help resolve a problem in her home

country. In Egypt we have a lot of companies produc-ing predatory mites for biological control, Abo-Shnafsaid. Also they can be exported abroad to differentcountries.

Abo-Shnaf is getting the experience she needsthrough her postdoctoral fellowship at the Universi-dade de So Paulo, Brazil. At the Brazilian lab, Abo-Shnaf uses a large library with detailed descriptions ofspecies from all over the world. To identify new speciesof mites, she compares her specimens to the descrip-tions of all species of a related genus. If the mite isunique enough, she asks her supervisor to confirm hersuspicions that its a different species before labeling itsuch.

So far, she has discovered four species of predatorymites farmers can explore using as crop guardians: twofrom the Rhodacaridae family, which tend to live insoil and decaying organic matter, and two from thePhytoseiidae family, which especially love to eat spidermites. She has one paper submitted to the journalZootaxa, describing the Rhodacaridae mites, and thesecond study on the new Phytoseiidae mites is still inprogress. Her fellowship began in January and will lastuntil the end of February 2014.

She said she has acquired invaluable knowledgefrom the fellowship, in particular from working withprofessor Gilberto Jos de Moraes, a world authorityon mite control and taxonomy. This fellowship is veryuseful for me because I have the opportunity to learnand know more about taxonomy under a famous pro-fessor, Abo-Shnaf said. She said the fellowship alsoprovides her with a well-equipped laboratory, whichincludes microscopes connected to computers that canphotograph the mites shes studying.

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A FUNGUS TO TARGETDISEASE-CARRYING MOSQUITOESAn Indian entomologist in Brazil

Diseases such as malaria, dengue, and chikungunyafever have proven to be maddeningly stubborn foes fordoctors and biologists, who are constantly seeking newways to keep the mosquitoes that carry them undercontrol.

One such possibility is a fungus called Metarhiziumanisopliae, which has a devastating effect on the dis-ease-carrying mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti andAnopheles stephensi. The green-coloured fungus infectsall mosquito stages. The insects cannot handle the fun-gus growing out of control in their bodies, and die.

Siva Kamalakannan is an ento-mologist from the Bharathiar Uni-versity, Coimbatore, in India andspecializes in pest control withbotanical insecticides. Through aTWAS fellowship at Instituto dePatologia Tropical e Sade Pblicaat the Universidade Federal de Goisin Goiina, Brazil, he researchesways to improve the fungus ability to infect mosqui-toes so that it can kill as many mosquito larvae as pos-sible. This fungus infects over 200 insect species,including termites, locusts and most critically mos-quitoes. As early as 1879, fungi from this genus werebeing evaluated for control of wheat chafer beetles,Anisoplia austriaca, and sugar beet curculio, Cleonuspunctiventris, in Ukraine, said Kamalakannan.

Kamalakannan and his colleagues in Brazil areworking on formulations of M. anisopliae associatedwith insecticidal plants in order to develop effective

weapons against mosquitoes that are inexpensive toproduce.

Anopheles stephensi, a major malaria carrier in India,and its larvae are commonly found in storage water andrain pools. Aedes aegypti transmits dengue fever andchikungunya, which are major problems in Kamalakan-nans home country of India. Kamalakannan noted thatthere were more than 11,000 suspected cases ofchikungunya in 2012 in India, and that the denguevirus has been on the rise in southern India since 2010.

Kamalakannans work focuses on combining theuse of infective spores with plant products that also killmosquito larvae. Specific plant compounds, such asazadiractin from the Neem tree that is native to muchof South Asia, increase how vulnerable the larvae are

to fungal infection, and these newformulations will be more effectiveagainst the larvae at breeding sitescompared to conventional biologi-cal larvicides.

At Universidade Federal deGois, Kamalakannan has theopportunity to work under supervi-sion of experienced scientists such

as Wolf Christian Luz and verton Kort Kamp Fernan-des. This fungus kills eggs, kills larvae, and killsadults, said Luz. The purpose of the formulation inKamalakannans studies is to increase the effectivenessand survival of the spores in the water, and their con-tact with aquatic larvae.

Kamalakannan also has access to high-qualityequipment for specific formula