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His beginnings
Luis Federico Leloir was born in Paris, on September 6, 1906.
He lived in Paris until he was two years old. Then he adopted Argentine citizenship. He always liked nature. When he finished his high school, he enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires and graduated in Medicine in 1932. After working for two years at the Hospital Nacional de Clínicas, he decided to dedicate himself to scientific research. -
His achievements
Leloir began working at the Institute of Physiology to carry out his doctoral thesis, which was awarded the Prize of the Buenos Aires School of Medicine in 1934. Then he decided to move from Medicine to Biochemistry. After obtaining his doctorate in medicine, Leloir went to England, to the Biochemical Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. When he returned to Buenos Aires in 1943, he released his book on Hypertension, which won the third National Science Award. -
Scientific research
In 1947 he founded a research institute specialized in biochemistry that Leloir directed. Shortly after, the institute's headquarters were moved to a better building, and the Institute for Biochemical Research, Campomar Foundation, was created. After a great discovery, the laboratory became a world-renowned research center. Leloir immediately received the Award from the Argentine Scientific Society, the first in a long list of national and foreign recognitions. -
Nobel Prize
He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1970 for his research on sugar nucleotides and the role they play in the manufacture of carbohydrates. -
His death
Luis Federico Leloir died in Buenos Aires on December 2, 1987 at the age of 81, after a heart attack shortly after arriving home from the laboratory. He was buried in the La Recoleta Cemetery.
