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If we want our country to progress harmoniously, we must stimulate both applied research for immediate purposes and research in fundamental sciences.41
Manuel Sandoval Vallarta
Pioneer of Latin American physics, Manuel Sandoval Vallarta (1899–1977) was the author of several dozen studies on mathematical methods, quantum mechanics, general relativity and the physics of cosmic rays, a specialty to which he contributed to define the composition and origin of the cosmic radiation.
With the support of the Guggenheim Fellowship, he attended the University of Berlin in Germany, in 1927, where he lived in one of the most important centers dedicated to the creation of modern physics. He attended the chairs of Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Erwin Schrödinger and Max von Laure.
In 1933 he directed a series of works in collaboration with Georges Lemaître, whose mathematical analyzes allowed to interpret Nobel Laureate Arthur Compton’s cosmic radiation observations in various locations of Earth. These studies show-ed that cosmic radiation consisted of charged particles and earned the team aNobel Prize nomination.
Don Manuel was a founding member of the Colegio Nacional and of the UNESCO International Committee of Education Experts; he was president of the Mexican Society of Physics; president of the International Committee for Cosmic Radiation Weights and Measures, which belongs to the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics; and was also member of the thirteen scientific societies of the specialty he professed, including the universities of Lima, Canada, Japan, United States, Philadelphia and the Vatican City.
