Sabato, Jorge Alberto (1924–1983)

Jorge Alberto Sabato (June 4, 1924–November 16, 1983) was a physicist and thinker with a long public career promoting technological development in Latin America. He was an exponent of the Latin American current of thought on science, technology production, development, and dependency along with Helio Jaguaribe (Brazil), Osvaldo Sunkel (Chile), Miguel Wionczek (Mexico), Francisco Sagasti (Venezuela) and Máximo Halty (Uruguay).

Sabato began his career as a physics professor high school teacher and, with Alberto Maiztegui, coauthored a physics textbook that was widely used in Latin America: FÍSICA I and FÍSICA II (first editions 1951 and 1955, respectively). In 1955 he joined Argentina's National Atomic Energy Commission (Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica), and later became head of its technology department. Comisión with Carlos Martínez Vidal he founded the metallurgical laboratory, a seedbed for researchers that provided a starting point for the Comisión's involvement in technology production through its Technical Assistance Service for Industry (Servicio de Asistencia Técnica a la Industria). These initiatives resulted in the participation of Argentine industry in the construction of nuclear power plants. The laboratory was also the hub of the Pan American Metallurgy Course (Curso Panamericano de Metalurgia) that has been a fundamental academic agency for the field of metallurgy in Latin America.

Sabato wrote hundreds of articles, among them the notable "La ciencia y la tecnología en el desarrollo futuro de América Latina" (1968), which proposes "the triangle model," articulating the scientific and technological system, government policies, and the production system. He wrote and edited several books, including La producción de tecnología (1982) and El pensamiento latinoamericano en la problemática ciencia-tecnología-desarrollo- dependencia (1975).

He was a guest researcher at the universities of Birmingham (United Kingdom), Stanford (United States), Sussex (United Kingdom), and Montreal (Canada), and with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Sabato participated in the creation of the Bariloche Foundation (Fundación Bariloche) and the Bariloche Physics Institute (Instituto de Física) in Bariloche, Argentina, with José Balseiro and Fidel Alsina. He was a scientific journalist, promoter of the arts, acerbic political humorist, and active defender of public freedoms.

See alsoJaguaribe Gomes de Matos, Hélio; Science.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dagnino, Renato. As trajetórias dos Estudos sobre Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade e da Política Científica e Tecnológica na Ibero-América, Proceedings. 1^a Conferencia Argentina de Estudios Sociales de la Ciencia y Tecnología. Julio de 2007, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Argentina.

Jorge A. Sabato: Ensayos en campera. Edited by Juarez. 1970; 2nd edition, Bernal: Universidad Nacional de Quilmes Editorial, 2004.

Libanatti, Nelly A. de, and Jorge A. Sabato. "Conferencia Interamericana sobre Tecnología de Materiales." In El Curso Panamericano de Metalurgia: Una experiencia de postgraduado. New York: South West Research Institute/ASME, 1968.

Maiztegui, Alberto, and Jorge A. Sabato. Física I. Buenos Aires: Editorial Kapelusz, 1951.

Maiztegui, Alberto, and Jorge A. Sabato. Física II. Buenos Aires: Editorial Kapelusz, 1955.

Sabato, Jorge A., ed. El pensamiento latinoamericano en la problemática ciencia-tecnología-desarrollo-dependencia. Buenos Aires: Editorial Paidos, 1975.

Sabato, Jorge A., and Natalio Botana. "La ciencia y la tecnología en el desarrollo futuro de América Latina." Buenos Aires: Revista De La Integracióń, 1968.

Sabato, Jorge A., and Michael Mackenzie. La producción de tecnología: ¿Autónoma o transnacional? Mexico City: Editorial Nueva Imagen, 1982.

                                  Carlos GarcÍa Blaya