In Memoriam
Professor Máximo E. Valentinuzzi, PhD
February 24, 1932 – January 2, 2021

A great driver behind the recognition of Biomedical Engineering
in Argentina and Latin America

Dr. Valentinuzzi was the founder of the Regional Council of Biomedical Engineering for Latin America – CORAL and Honorary Member of the Sociedad Argentina de Bioingenieria – SABI, and Life Member of IEEE-EMBS and IFMBE.

Professor Max Valentinuzzi was a Telecommunications Engineer, PhD in Physiology and Biophysics (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 1969). Tenured professor since 1972 in the Bioelectronics Laboratory (later “Bioengineering”) at the National University of Tucumán. Promotor of Argentina’s first Biomedical Engineering or Bioengineering undergraduate and graduate degrees. Co-founder (1981) and Director (1987) of the Superior Institute of Biological Investigations, INSIBIO, at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigations (CONICET).

Max has received many important awards:

• Nightingale IFMBE, 1973
• Premio Biological Engineering Society, Londres, 1981
• Premio Bernardo A. Houssay, Sociedad Argentina Biología, 1985
• Premio Catalina de Barón con Fundación Favaloro sobre impedancimetría intracardíaca
• Premio Recorrido Dorado a las Ciencias, 1984, Sociedad Distribuidores Diarios de Buenos Aires
• Académico correspondiente, Academia Nacional de Ingeniería, 1981
• Premio Bernardo A. Houssay, Sociedad Argentina Biología, 1985
• Premio Catalina de Barón con Fundación Favaloro sobre impedancimetría intracardíaca
• Premio Recorrido Dorado a las Ciencias, 1984, Sociedad Distribuidores Diarios de Buenos Aires; Académico correspondiente, Academia Nacional de Ingeniería, 1989, de la Academia de Ciencias Medicas de Córdoba, 1990
• Founding Fellow de la International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering, 1997
• El IEEE/EMBS en 1996 el Career Achievement Award
• Premio Bernardo Houssay 2004 de SECYT
• el Premio Félix Cernuschi a la Bioingeniería 2005 y Premio Konex en el área Comunicaciones)

In Latin America, he has received recognition from several universities. Max was the author of more than 150 scientific papers, three books, author of book chapters, and guest editor of ten magazines’ special editions. He was “a friend of all children”; with whom he engages in talks during long Sunday meetings in his home in Yerba Buena, Tucumán. His usual motto: “To be is better than to have” defines his personality.