Humberto Fernández-Morán
{{Short description|Venezuelan scientist (1924–1999)}}
{{family name hatnote|Fernández-Morán|Villalobos|lang=Spanish}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2011}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Humberto Fernández-Morán
| birth_name = Humberto Fernández-Morán Villalobos
| image = FernadezMoran.jpg
| image_size = 225px
| caption = Fernández-Morán Villalobos on the electron microscope at IVIC in the 1950s
| birth_date = {{birth date|1924|2|18|df=y}}
| birth_place = Maracaibo, Venezuela
| nationality =
| death_date = {{death date and age|1999|3|17|1924|2|24|df=y}}
| death_place = Stockholm, Sweden
| field = Medicine
| work_institutions = Central University of Venezuela (UCV), NASA, MIT, University of Chicago, Stockholm University
| alma_mater = {{ unbulleted list | University of Munich | George Washington University }}
| doctoral_advisor =
| doctoral_students =
| known_for = Diamond knife
Founder of IVIC
Cryoultramicrotomy
Electron cryomicroscopy
| prizes = Order of the Polar Star, John Scott Award
| religion =
| signature =
| footnotes =
}}
Humberto Fernández-Morán Villalobos (18 February 1924{{spaced ndash}}17 March 1999)Fernández, Tomás y Tamaro, Elena. «Biografia de Humberto Fernández Morán». En Biografías y Vidas. La enciclopedia biográfica en línea [Internet]. Barcelona, España, 2004.https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/f/fernandez_moran.htm was a Venezuelan research scientist born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, known for inventing the diamond knife or scalpel, significantly advancing the development of electromagnetic lenses for electron microscopy based on superconducting technology, and many other scientific contributions.
Career
Fernández-Morán founded the Venezuelan Institute for Neurological and Brain Studies, the predecessor of the current Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC). He studied medicine at the University of Munich, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1944. He contributed to the development of the electron microscope and was the first person to use the concept of cryo-ultramicrotomy. After flying over Angel Falls in his home country of Venezuela he was inspired by the concept of the smoothly reoccurring flow system inherent in a waterfall to take his diamond knife invention and combine it with an ultramicrotome to dramatically improve the ultra-thin sectioning of electron microscopy samples. The ultramictrotome advances the rotating, drum-mounted specimen sample in such small increments (utilizing the very low thermal expansion coefficient of Invar) past the stationary diamond knife that sectioning thicknesses of several Angstrom units are possible. He also helped to advance the field of electron cryomicroscopy - the use of superconductive electromagnetic lenses cooled with liquid helium in electron microscopes to achieve the highest resolution possible - among many other research topics.
Fernández-Morán was commissioned in 1957 with the supervision of the first Venezuelan research nuclear reactor, the RV-1 nuclear reactor, one of the first in Latin America.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nti.org/analysis/articles/venezuelas-search-nuclear-power/|title=Venezuela's Search for Nuclear Power - or Nuclear Prestige|last=Diehl|first=Sarah|date=7 May 2019|website=Nuclear Threat Initiative|access-date=18 June 2019}}
He was appointed Minister of Education during the last year of the regime of Marcos Pérez Jiménez and was forced to leave Venezuela when the dictatorship was overthrown in 1958. He worked with NASA for the Apollo Project and taught in many universities, such as MIT, University of Chicago and the Stockholm University.
He donated a collection of his papers to the National Library of Medicine in 1986.{{cite web|url=http://oculus.nlm.nih.gov/fernandez422|title=Humberto Fernández-Morán Papers 1952-1985|publisher=National Library of Medicine}}
Personal life
His wife Anna was Swedish and together they had two daughters, Brigida Elena and Verónica.
The body of Humberto Fernández-Morán was cremated and his ashes rest today in Cemetery The Square Luxburg-Carolath in his hometown, Maracaibo.
Inventions
- Diamond knife{{cite book |editor1-first=Martin |editor1-last=Hytch |editor2-first=Peter W. |editor2-last=Hawkes |title=The Beginnings of Electron Microscopy - Part 1. |year=2021 |place=United States |publisher=Elsevier Science |isbn=978-0323915076 |pages=268–274}}{{cite web |url=http://cbe.ivic.ve/PatenteCuchillaDiamante.pdf |title=Improvements in or relating of a method of Polishing a Cutting Edge of a Diamond for a Cutting Tool, Patent |date=August 6, 1958 |accessdate=June 15, 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717034501/http://cbe.ivic.ve/PatenteCuchillaDiamante.pdf |archivedate=July 17, 2012}}{{full citation needed|date=November 2012}}
- Ultra microtome
Awards and honors
- 1967, the John Scott Award, for his invention of the diamond scalpel.{{cite web |url=http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/johnscottaward/js1961-1970.html |title=The John Scott Award Recipients 1961–1970 |publisher=John Scott Award Advisory Committee |first=E. |last=Garfield |authorlink=Eugene Garfield |accessdate=March 30, 2011 |archive-date=September 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180922231300/http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/johnscottaward/js1961-1970.html |url-status=dead }} Dr. Eugene Garfield is member of the Advisory Committee.
- Knight of the Order of the Polar Star
- Claude Bernard Medal, University of Montreal
- Cambridge annual Medical Prize
See also
{{Portal|Venezuela}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20120717034501/http://cbe.ivic.ve/PatenteCuchillaDiamante.pdf The Patent of the Diamond Scalpel] - September 1955.
- [https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?No=0&N=4294958811 Research done for NASA by Fernández Morán]
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Category:People from Maracaibo
Category:20th-century Venezuelan scientists
Category:Academic staff of the Central University of Venezuela
Category:Knights of the Order of the Polar Star
Category:20th-century inventors
Category:Venezuelan emigrants to Sweden