It is with deepest regret that we inform the death of Dr. Eduardo Charreau. In addition to his outstanding achievements as scientist, he was a great person who dedicated his life to promote the scientific and technological development of Argentina.
He held a Bs and a PhD in Chemical Sciences (University of Buenos Aires, UBA), where he met Luis Federico Leloir, and later became a disciple of Bernardo Houssay, both awardees of Nobel Prizes in 1970 and 1947, respectively. He was a Researcher Emeritus of CONICET, President of the CONICET (2002-2008), tenured Full Professor in the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the UBA, Assistant Professor of the University of Harvard (United States) and during his career he received countless awards for his research in molecular endocrinology and hormone-tumor dependence.
Eduardo Charreau. Foto: Verónica Tello | CONICET.
His research lines were as important as his administration as President of CONICET: he took charge of the organization after the 2001 crisis and decades of under-financing. This scientific agency was aging, with almost no new researchers for the past decades, and with almost no funding for doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships. After taking office, he worked together with the governments of Eduardo Duhalde and Néstor Kirchner to reverse this situation and to promote the return to Argentina of researchers and professionals who had migrated.
“Dr. Charreau was not only a great scientist, pioneer in his field, but also a great promoter of science in Argentina and played a very important role in the creation of our institute. He was and always will be a reference for us and very close to our house”, says Eduardo Arzt, director of IBioBA.
Pablo Jacovkis, President of the IBioBA Foundation; Diego Golombek, member of the Board of Trustees of our Institute; Eduardo Charreau, and Eduarzo Arzt, director of the IBioBA, during a meeting organized at our Institute by the IBioBA Foundation.
He was director of IBYME, the research institute founded by Houssay. He was also President of the Panamerican Federation of Associations for the Advancement of Sciences; National and Binational Director of the Argentine-Brazilian Biotechnology Center, and President of several Societies and Foundations. He was also a member of the National Academy of Medicine, of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Córdoba, of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and was president of the National Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences (2008-2012).
Hi received, among many distinctions, the TWAS Award in Basic Medicine, the Master of Argentine Medicine distinction, Dr. Honoris Causa of the Universities of Tucumán and Concepción, the Konex Award twice: as a scientist (Basic Biomedical Sciences, 1993) and as administrator of the Sciences (Public Administrator, 2008). He also received the Ordre des Palmes Académiques (awarded by the French Government) and the National Order of Scientific Merit – Commander (Brazil).