Eduardo Diego Patricio De Robertis
A SHORT BIO
Eduardo de Robertis was born in Buenos Aires on December 11, 1913. He was born to Francisco and Emilia De Robertis, both coming from a well-known Italian family. Since early age, little Eduardo showed remarkable abilities for understanding the world around him, during these early years, his abilities for leadership and teaching were also noticeable foreseen for little Eduardo a promising future.
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​These outstanding abilities resulted in him completing successfully the first three years of elementary school, spending his spare time at his father’s shop. According to Mancini’s, De Robertis biographer, these early years’ experience had a perfect equilibrium between the formal education received at school and the acquisition of practical knowledge from his time at his father’s shop. This combination of experiences would have a tremendous impact on his later pursuits.
In 1921, young De Robertis, together with his family moved for a period of time to Italy, this allowed him to get in touch with a new set of cultural scenarios and his family’s origins; Eduardo did not have difficulties with adapting to this new environment: he learned the language and succeeded in his elementary education, completing satisfactorily the third and fourth grade of elementary school.
After two years in Italy, the De Robertis family returned definitively to Argentina, Eduardo resumed his studies and it is during this period that he established a long lasting relationship with Edelmiro N. Rossi, who would strongly influence his life and future education.
Map of Salerno, 1912. De Robertis family was from the Salerno region, Italy.
Salerno, c. 1920s.
The De Robertis family c. 1921.
At the age of 12, supported by his parents’ trust and love, Eduardo entered the Mariano Moreno’s National Highschool, which brought him closer to his success in the natural sciences and started defining his career in scientific research. During his last years, he showed particular interest for upper level science courses such as Anatomy and Physiology, Physics and Chemistry; he spent these fructiferous years gazing through classic medical textbooks such as Testut’s Anatomy, Gley’s Physiology and Murani’s Physics.
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It is also during these years that De Robertis got in touch with different cultural circles, assisted to numerous conferences given by world reknown personalities of the arts and sciences. He spent large amounts of time reading literature classics and discussing the latest scientific hypothesis. After successfully passing the Medical School Admission Exams, he entered to the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine in 1932 at the age of 19.
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Upper left. Group of first-year medical students at the Anatomy Cadaver Laboratory in the University of Buenos Aires Medical School. De Robertis during his first years of medical education would develop a profound interest for the structure human body and the cell.
Lower left. Frontis of the University of Buenos Aires School of Medical Sciences' original building, now it holds the School of Economics, November 1923. Source: CEDIAP, Ministry of Public Word of the Argentinian Government.
Right. Frontis of the Mariano Moreno National Highschool (c. 1915) where Eduardo de Robettis completed his secondary education. During this period, young Eduardo got in touch with upper level science courses that would later influence his professional career. Source: CEDIAP
De Robertis' work covered many fields of animal physiology: from his work on hepatic physiology in 1939 to his research on the secretory cycle of the thyroid gland, he succeeded in many areas, but he's most known for co-discovering the synaptic vesicles, a concept that changed our understanding on how neural communication happens. Although it was international common opinion that a Nobel Prize was on the way for the Argentinian scientist, he never was distinguished with such a prize. Read part of the article "Gente" Magazine published in 1978 by clicking on the image.
"Si a este hombre le dan el Premio Nobel, no se extrañe" ("If this man gets the Nobel Prize, don't be surprised"). "Gente" Magazine, 1978.
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Eduardo de Robertis, around 1963. Picture taken from the Department of Zoology at the University of Californa. "Eduardo de Robertis! by R. E. Mancini (1963)