In memoriam Osvaldo A. Reig (1929–1992)
- Publisher
- Springer Netherlands
- Year
- 1992
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 217 KB
- Volume
- 85
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0016-6707
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
In memoriam Osvaldo A. Reig (1929-1992) Osvaldo Reig was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1929. His brilliant scientific career was very unconventional. Very early in 1950, due to political repression, he was separated as a student from the Universidad de La Plata, Argentina, and he could never finish his undergraduate studies. Nonetheless, his early scientific accomplishments as a freelance paleontologist were so significant that in 1957 he was already appointed Lecturer of Comparative Anatomy by the Universidad de Buenos Aires. In 1958, he moved to the Instituto-Fundacion Miguel Lillo, Tucuman, Argentina, to found two laboratories dedicated to Vertebrate Paleontology and Batracian Neontology.
Three years later, his innovative discoveries of vertebrate fossiles in Northwestern Argentina were recognized by an international committee, including the famous paleontologist George G. Simpson as a member. The committee elected him Full Professor of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, disregarding the fact that he had no degree. After several years in this position, he moved temporarily to the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, in 1966. That year Argentina was shaken by a military coup and he resigned from his position in Argentina to oppose dictatorship. He exiled himself to Venezuela, where he spent almost 15 years, with several interruptions, working in different institutions, but mostly as Professor of the Universidad Simon Bolivar, Caracas. In 197 1, he moved to the Department of Zoology, University of London, and obtained his PhD in 1972. Then, he returned to South America, and established an Institute of Genetics and Evolution in the Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia. The Pinochet's coup forced him to leave Chile and he tried to settle again in his country, but political unrest and revenge led to dismissal from his position at the Universidad de Buenos Aires in 1974. This year he exiled again to Venezuela where he developed an active research program studying the mechanisms of chromosomal speciation in species of spiny rats (genus Proechymis). Finally, with the victory of democracy