Elio García-Austt

Elio Garcia Austt

Elio García-Austt (1919–2005) was a Uruguayan neuroscientist.

Early Life in Montevideo

García-Austt's father was a professor of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine in Montevideo, and was a member of the Parliament of Uruguay.

García-Austt graduated with honors as "Doctor en Medicina y Cirugía" (M.D.) at the University of the Republic in 1948, and obtained a gold medal with a doctoral thesis on, "Repercussion of some metabolic alterations on the bioelectric potentials". Before his graduation, he had started his career as a neuroscientist, developing clinical electroencephalography at the Instituto de Endocrinología using the first recording instrument that was in Uruguay by 1942.

After his graduation, he continued his job as clinical neurophysiologist and published his first papers on epilepsy. His clinical career continued with the foundation and direction of five clinical electroencephalography laboratories at Montevideo's public hospitals.

García-Austt's interest in basic scientific research on neurophysiology arose at the Department of Physiology of the Medical School of Montevideo under Dr. Corneille Heymans during García-Austt's extended stay in Montevideo in the postwar period. He claimed that his relationship with Heymans was fundamental for the start of his career as neurobiologist.

In 1951, he worked in the Neurophysiology Laboratory of the Pontifical Catholic University at Santiago de Chile, directed by Prof. Joaquin Luco, one of the most important neurobiology scientists. Back in Montevideo, he started the "Laboratorio de Neurofisiología" in collaboration with Drs. E. Migliaro and J.P. Segundo. This laboratory was under the joint jurisdiction of the Biophysics and Physiology Departments.

In this Neurophophysiology Laboratory, a set of neurobiological researchers was trained. Those researchers continued his works in different laboratories in Uruguay and other countries. At this school, García-Austt set up a course of the nervous system which included faculty from the physiology, biophysics, histology, anatomy and pharmacology departments.

In 1959, García-Austt created the Neurophysiology Laboratory at the "Instituto de Neurología y Neurocirugía" of the School of Medicine. He worked until 1973, when he moved to Spain. The laboratory's research included:

1. Evoked potentials in humans and their relationship with attention and perception.
2. Regulating mechanisms of sensory, auditive, visual and somesthetic inputs.
3. Recording electrical stimulation during brain surgery in humans.
4. Oxygen pressure variation during sleep.
5. Physiology and physiopathology of the intracranial pressure. This research created a procedure for the diagnosis of normotensive hydrocephalia.

During this period, The research work was largely financed by foreign grants.

Madrid

In 1973, he was invited by Jose M. Rodriguez Delgado to work in Madrid, Spain, collaborating in the development of neurobiology at the "Hospital 'Ramón y Cajal' of Social Security".

He accepted it, both because of the better facilities and the unbearable socio-political climate in Uruguay.

At that hospital he founded the Experimental Neurology Service of the Research Department. For 15 years, he worked on the generating mechanisms of brain rhythms. He collaborated with the Neurochirurgical Unit, led by Dr. Obrador-Alcalde, connecting his research to the clinical area of the hospital. As professor in the Department of Physiology of the School of Medicine of the Universidad Autonoma in Madrid, he taught neuroscience, in close collaboration with Professors Rodriguez Delgado and Reinoso Suarez.

Garcia-Austt and the Spanish Neurosciences Society

In 1980, 1981, and 1983, García-Austt organized preliminary scientific meetings, named the I, II, and III Spanish Neurobiologists Meetings, in collaboration with Reinoso Suarez, Salvador Lluch, and Isabel de Andres, lead to the creation of the Spanish Neurosciences Society, in 1985, of which Garcia-Austt was the first president.

Return to Montevideo

In 1988, he returned to Montevideo to direct the "Proyecto de Neurociencia", financed by the European Union, their first scientific grant given to Latin America. The grant provided the basis for the development of five projects in several Uruguay laboratories. This marked a revival of neuroscience in Uruguay, thanks to García-Austt's integrative and formative work, creating a favourable scientific environment for the return of several researchers who worked in foreign countries. During this period he returned frequently to Madrid, in which he maintained his office at the Hospital 'Ramón y Cajal' .

In Uruguay, he continued in the organization of several national and international courses which formed the present structure of the "Escuela de Neurociencia" in Hispanic America.

In 1991, he was Appointed as Professor of Neuroscience of the School of Sciences of the University of Uruguay, a position which he held until his retirement in 1999.

He married two times and had five sons. He died in Montevideo in 12th August 2005.

Positions

• Associate Professor of Physiology, Facultad de Medicina de Montevideo, 1959–1974.
• Chief of "Servicio de Neurología Experimental", at Departamento de Investigación, Centro Especial “Ramón y Cajal”, Madrid, 1977–1989.
• Professor ad honorem, School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 1974.
• "Professor Especial", School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 1975–1988.
• "Professor Emérito", School of Medicine, Uruguay, 1986.
• "Professor Honorífico", Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, 1990.
• Professor of Neurosciences, Facultad de Ciencias, Uruguay, 1991–1999
• Director of the Instituto de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Uruguay, 1991–1994.
• "Professor Emérito", Facultad de Ciencias, Uruguay, 1998.
• "Doctor Honoris Causa", Universidad, Uruguay, 2000.