Sandoval Vallarta, Manuel (1899–1977)

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Sandoval Vallarta, Manuel (1899–1977)

Manuel Sandoval Vallarta (b. 11 February 1899; d. 18 April 1977), Mexican physicist and educator. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1921, Sandoval Vallarta later became a disciple of Albert Einstein and other scientists of that time, as well as a costudent and collaborator of Robert Oppenheimer. He received a Guggenheim fellowship to study in Berlin in 1927–1928 and was an exchange professor at Louvain University, Belgium. He began teaching at MIT in 1926 and left his position in 1943 to return to Mexico, where he became director of the National Polytechnic Institute in 1944 and assistant secretary of education in 1953. An internationally recognized physicist, he produced many students who formed the next generation of important Mexican scientists, including Carlos Graef Fernández. The Mexican government selected him as one of the original members of the National College and awarded him its National Prize in Sciences in 1959.

See alsoGrenada; Mestizo; Morazán, Francisco; Nicaragua; San Salvador.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Manuel Sandoval Vallarta, "Reminiscencias," in Naturaleza 4 (1973): 178; Proceso, 23 April 1977, 28.

Additional Bibliography

Mendoza Avila, Eusebio. Semblanza del doctor Manuel Sandoval Vallarta: Ex-director del Instituto Politécnico Nacional. Mexico City: Editorial Instituto Politécnico Nacional, 1995.

Moshinsky, Marcos. "Manuel Sandoval Vallarta." Vuelta 2:24 (November 1978): 46-50.

                                     Roderic Ai Camp