Despite its modest budgets and numerous setbacks, academics and the sciences in Argentina have enjoyed an respect internationally since the turn of the 1900's, when Dr. Luis Agote devised the first safe and effective means of blood transfusion as well as René Favaloro who has been a pioneer in the improvement of the bypass surgery . Argentina has since then had three Nobel Prize winners in the sciences: Bernardo Houssay in 1947, Luis Federico Leloir in 1971, and César Milstein in 1984. Argentine scientists are still on the cutting edge in fields such as nanotechnology, physics, computer sciences and cardiology, the latter of which Dr. Domingo Liotta revolutionized with the first purely artificial heart, in 1969.
They have likewise contributed to bioscience in efforts like the Human Genome Project, where Argentine scientists have successfully mapped the genome of a living being, a world first.[6][7] Argentina has its own satellite programme, nuclear power station designs (4th generation) and public nuclear energy company INVAP, which provides several countries with nuclear reactors.[6]
Other projects are focusing on IT, nanotechnology, biotechnology, helicopters, farming machinery and military defensive systems. Space research has also become increasingly active in Argentina. Established in 1991, the CONAE has since launched two satellites successfully and,[8] in June 2009, secured an agreement with the European Space Agency on for the installation of a 35-m diameter antenna and other mission support facilities at the Pierre Auger Observatory. The facility will contribute to numerous ESA space probes, as well as CONAE's own, domestic research projects. Chosen from 20 potential sites and one of only three such ESA installations in the world, the new antenna will create a triangulation which will allow the ESA to ensure mission coverage around the clock.[9]
Social sciences have a particularly strong tradition in Argentina. Home to 122 think tanks specializing in public policy and economics issues, Argentina ranks fifth in the number of these institutions worldwide.[10]
Recently, Sandra Díaz, PhD in Biology, researcher at the NU of C, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, was designated member of the National Academy of Science by its outstanding labor on hers labor on climate change being the first Hispanic American woman to achieve that honor.[11]
Currently there are further outstanding Argentine researchers in the mentioned institution as Alberto Carlos Frasch (NU of SAM), Armando Parodi (NU of SAM - Leloir Institute), and Francisco de la Cruz (Balseiro Institute - NU of Cu).
Among the public institutions devoted to research and development in Argentina are:
- CITEFA: Armed Forces Scientific and Technical Research Institute
- CNEA: National Atomic Energy Commission
- CONAE: National Space Activities Commission
- CONICET: the National Research Council
- INTA: National Agricultural Technology Institute
- INTI: National Industrial Technology Institute
- INVAP: Argentine high-technology research & development company
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