Mario Báncora
Mario Báncora
Date of Birth:
September 24, 1918
Rosario - Santa Fe, Argentina
Date of Death:
July 30, 2006
Rosario
Occupation:
Researcher, Teacher.
Specialty:
Nuclear Physics
Historical Data:
He built the first Latin American cyclotron.
Member of the Commission that investigated the huemul project during the first presidency of Perón.
He calculated and built the aluminum dome and wood and equipment Mod IV Carl Zeiss Planetarium in the city of Rosario.
Inventor of the automatic opener and peeler parachute.
Mario Eduardo Guido Báncora (born Rosario, Santa Fe, September 24, 1918 - July 30, 2006) was an Argentine physicist.
Career
Báncora earned an engineering degree in 1942 from the National University of Litoral. Due to his high academic average, along with the recommendations of the Rector and Professor Pla Cortez Beppo-Levi, he also received a scholarship at the Institute of International Education in the United States.
Thanks to the intervention of the American scientist Ernest Lawrence, Báncora was able to remain in the US after completing his studies and ended up at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was appointed member of the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory (currently known as the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory). A byproduct of the research done at the laboratory was the automatic opening device for parachutes, for which the U.S. Air Force requested a patent.
Upon leaving the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, Báncora received many offers to continue working in the United States; however, he was convinced that knowledge acquired abroad needed to be returned to Argentina. He returned and continued his work, and also married his girlfriend. The American government grew suspicious of Báncora, even though the Americans retained his original research. However, before leaving, he had the opportunity to make contact with Nobel laureates Glenn T. Seaborg and Albert Einstein, who met at the home of the scientist on December 28, 1944, for tea.
Báncora joined the Faculty of Engineering at the National University of Rosario (UNR) in 1946 as professor of physics I, but over the years was the first professor at UNR to organize and deliver the subjects of physics II, III, IV, V and electronic physics, which the faculty permanently to their curricula. Many of his students are currently teaching at UNR, and remember him as "a person of integrity, good and with a natural ability for teaching and research development."
Returning to Rosario, he embarked on a project many considered overly ambitious: the construction of the first cyclotron of South America. He also organized the nuclear physics department at the University. The department's experimental studies derailed the controversial Huemul Project by the Austrian Ronald Richter.
In 1957, Báncora was the only Latin American member on the Preparatory Committee of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He was later appointed Director of the National Atomic Energy Commission, and in 1961 Argentine Nobel Prize winner Bernardo Houssay invited him to participate in the CONICET.
Awards
Báncora received numerous awards, including the Haas International Award from the University of California, given to alumni who make an outstanding contribution to their respective countries.
He was declared a Professor Emeritus of the National University of Rosario, and on November 19, 2004, he was declared a major citizen of the City of Rosario, in recognition of his extensive work and research, at the national and international level, in the field of Atomic Energy and its contributions to the improvement of science education.
On August 30, 2006, a month after his death, the Faculty of Exact Sciences, Engineering and Surveying at UNR put his name on the institution's nuclear reactor as a tribute.
Death
Báncora died on July 30, 2006, after suffering from Parkinson's Disease; he died at home, with his wife and family present.