Mario Garavaglia
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Mario Garavaglia was born in Junín (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina) in 1937. He received his Bachelor Degree in Physics from Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), Argentina, in 1960, with the thesis entitled "Interference analysis of the hyperfine structure of natural mercury", under the direction of Athos Giacchetti. In 1964-65 he completed his postgraduate studies at Uppsala University, Sweden, on the stimulated emission on natural mercury, under the direction of Kjell Bockasten and Bela Lengyel. In 1965 he received his Ph.D. in Physics from UNLP, Argentina. His thesis was entitled "Laser spectroscopy of neutral mercury"; his adviser was Rafael Grinfeld. In 1969 he was designated adjunct professor of UNLP's Department of Physics. The same year, he was made a member of the Research Career of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Argentina. His is now a professor of physics at UNLP, and holds the title of Investigador Superior at CONICET.
Garavaglia has published over 120 research papers in internationally respected journals. Since 1959, his research has focused on subjects including classical and modern optics (1959-present), emission optical spectroscopy (1959-79), laser spectroscopy (1964-81), optical metrology (1966-present), laser physics (1964-present), optics and laser technological applications (1966-present), optics and laser biomedical applications (1978-present), and ophthalmic optics and retinal and brain image processing (1980-present). He has directed 20 Ph.D. thesis, and he has also been co-director or adviser of 14 Ph.D. graduates.
In 1966 Garavaglia launched the Laboratory of Spectroscopy, Optics and Lasers in the Department of Physics, UNLP. In 1976, he promoted an expansion of the laboratory's activity, and in 1977 he founded the Centro de Investigaciones Opticas (CIOp). He served as its director from 1977 to 1992. CIOp is one of the most important institution in optics education and research in Latin America. Inside CIOp, Garavaglia helped to create the only laser processing laboratory in Latin American with a laser industrial installation for research, education, training, and industrial services. In 1992, he was appointed Director of CONICET. For almost three years, he served as a member of the board of directors of CONICET and as a member of its executive committee.
Garavaglia served as the executive secretary of the organizing committee of the First Latin American Seminar on Lasers and Applications to Physics and Chemistry, held in La Plata in 1978. Along with Professor Joseph W. Goodman, he was coordinator of the Argentine delegation to the CONICET-NSF Workshop on Fourier Optics, held in La Plata in 1979. He was also coordinator of the Argentine delegation to the CONICET-NSF Workshop on Laser in Biomedicine, organized at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, in 1983. Professor Myron Wolbarsht was the NSF coordinator. Professor Dieter Kind, president of the Comité Consultatif pour la Définition du Metre (CCDM), invited him to participate in the 1982 session of his committee. Garavaglia was also member of the World Health Organization and the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA) Task Group to prepare the "Environmental Health Criteria Document 23. Lasers and Optical Radiation" (1982).
Garavaglia has been a lecturer for 65 postgraduate courses on optics, lasers physics, optical technology, laser applications in industry, and laser and optics in biomedicine at academic institutions throughout Latin America. In 1976, the Organization of American States published his book El Láser ("The Laser").
In 1999 the International Commission for Optics awarded him the Galileo Galilei Award by unanimous vote for his work on lasers and their applications in industry, medicine and biology and for promoting optics in Latin America.
