Elio García-Austt

Elio García-Austt (1919-2005) was born in Montevideo in a family which surely marked the future of its professional career, as his father was Professor of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine in Montevideo (also, he was an importante political character, elected as member of the Parliament).

Beginnings in Montevideo

García-Austt graduated with honors as "Doctor en Medicina y Cirugía" (M.D.) at the Universidad de la República of Uruguay in 1948 and obtained the Gold Medal, with a doctoral thesis on "Repercussion of some metabolic alterations on the bioelectric potentials".

Before his graduation, in 1942, he started his career as a neuroscientist, developing the clinical electroencephalography at the Instituto de Endocrinología using the first recording equipment that existed in Uruguay.

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

In this time arose his interest on basic scientific research on neurophysiology, at the Department of Physiology of the Medical School of Montevideo, under the direction of the Nobel Prize Dr. Corneille Heymans, during his extended stay in Montevideo at postwar time. García-Austt claimed that his relationship with Prof. Heymans was fundamental for the start of his career as neurobiologist.

In 1951, he worked in the Neurophysiology Laboratory of the Universidad Católica at Santiago de Chile, directed by Prof. Joaquin Luco, one the most important neurobiology scientists. Back in Montevideo, starts the "Laboratorio de Neurofisiología" in collaboration with Drs. E. Migliaro and J.P. Segundo. This laboratory depended 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 foreign countries. At this School, García-Austt set up an Integral Course of the Nervous System which included teachers of Physiology, Biophysics, Histology, Anatomy and Pharmacology Departaments.

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. In this laboratory he performed important and fruitful research works, both in men and animals. The research included

1. Evoked potentials in the man and its relationship with attention and perception;
2. Regulating mechanisms of sensory, auditive, visual and somesthesic inputs;
3. Recording and 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, a work which was recognized with prizes in Uruguay and Spain.

During this period, the research works was financed in a big portion by important foreign grants.

The period in Madrid

In the year 1973 was invited to work in Madrid by Prof. Dr. Jose M. Rodriguez Delgado, collaborating in the development of Neurobiology at the Hospital "Ramon y Cajal" of the Social Security. It was a brilliant opportunity to follow his fruitful scientific work in optimal conditions, and a very good outcome of an unbereable socio-political in Uruguay. At the Ramon y Cajal Hospital he founded the Experimental Neurology Service of the Research Departament. During 15 years several research lines were developed—among others, the analysis of the generating mechanisms of diverse brain rhythms. In this place, he participated actively en the formation of a group of outstanding neurobiologists which developed an important scientific work in Spanish and foreign laboratories. He was connected with the Hospital clinical area, via the collaboration with the Neurochirurgical Unit led by Dr. Obrador-Alcalde.

In this stage, as professor in the Departament of Physiology of the School of Medicine of the Universidad Autonoma in Madrid, he contributed actively in the teaching in Neuroscience, in close collaboration with Profs. Rodriguez Delgado and Reinoso Suarez.

Garcia-Austt and the Spanish Neurosciences Society

This Society had a long and complex creation phase. Several preliminary scientific meetings named I, II and III Spanish Neurobiologists Meetings in 1980, 1981 and 1983, organized by Garcia-Austt in collaboration with Profs. Reinoso Suarez, Salvador Lluch and Isabel de Andres, lead to the creation, in 1985, of the Spanish Neurosciences Society, in which Garcia-Austt was the first President. During nearly 20 years this Society marked the life of the Spanish neuroscience and was a basic motor of its development.

Return to Montevideo

In 1988 he returns to Montevideo to direct the "Proyecto de Neurociencia", financed by the European Union. This scientific grant was the first given to Latin America by the European Community and settled the base for the development of five projects in several Uruguay laboratories. In this stage there is an important revival of the neuroscience in Uruguay, thanks to the integrating and formative job of Garcia-Austt, creating a favourable scientific environment for the return of several researchers which worked in foreign countries. During this period he returned frequently to Madrid, in which he maintained his office at the Ramon y Cajal Hospital. Until his last visit, in 1998, his advices on running research works was attended with great interest. In between, in Uruguay, he continued in the orientation of several national and international courses which formed the present structure of the "Escuela de Neurociencia" in Hispanic America.

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

He directed several laboratories and departaments, mentioned above, and had a very plentiful curriculum with a list of papers in international journals, from 1952 to 1988. The list can be seen in .

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

Positions

• Associated Professor of Physiology, Facultad de Medicina de Montevideo, 1959-1974.
• Chief of "Servicio de Neurología Experimental", 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.