Draft:August Pi i Sunyer

August Pi i Sunyer (Barcelona, August 12, 1879 - Mexico City, January 12, 1965) was a Catalan physiologist and politician, son of Jaume Pi i Sunyer and brother of Carles Pi i Sunyer and Santiago Pi i Sunyer. A professor and chair of Physiology in Sevilla and Barcelona, he directed the Institute of Physiology, where he created a school of great international prestige. Among other achievements, he was a member of the Institute of Catalan Studies and founder of the Society of Biology.

Academic and Medical Activity
August Josep Carles Pi i Sunyer was born on Banys Nous street, Barcelona, as the son of 21-year-old physician Jaume Pi i Sunyer, a native of Roses, and his cousin and wife, Carolina Sunyer i Quintana, aged 25 and also from Roses, daughter of politician Francesc Sunyer i Capdevila. August Pi i Sunyer earned his medical degree from the University of Barcelona in 1899 and received his doctorate from the University of Madrid in 1900, focusing his thesis on anaerobic life. In 1901, he wed Carme Bayo i Puig. By 1902, he served as an assistant professor of physiology in Barcelona under the guidance of Ramon Coll i Pujol, and in 1904, he secured a professorship at the University of Sevilla. He led the executive committee of the inaugural Congress of Hygiene of Catalonia in 1906 and, in 1907, relinquished his professorship to return to Barcelona and commit to research. In 1914, he was named professor of physiology at the University of Barcelona's faculty of medicine, achieving full professorship by 1916.

Dedicated to the field of medicine until his exile, he established a physiological research center at the Municipal Laboratory of Barcelona. Under the direction of Ramon Turró i Darder, with whom he maintained a close working relationship and considered himself a protégé, he conducted animal experiments that led to several discoveries regarding reflexes, physical stimuli, and their impact on respiratory movements. In 1920, he assumed leadership of the Institute of Physiology of the Mancomunitat, founding a school recognized for its international prestige. He also founded the Catalan Society of Biology within the Institute of Catalan Studies in 1912, served as the president of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Barcelona from 1926 to 1939, and was the director of Treballs de la Societat de Biologia (1913-1938), publishing the majority of his research there.

His academic endeavors extended both domestically and internationally to Argentina, Uruguay, and Venezuela. He participated in the Catalan University Congresses of 1918 and 1919, delivered courses at the universities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo in 1919, championed the Congresses of Catalan Language Doctors, and attended international congresses on medicine in Madrid (1903) and Budapest (1909), psychology in Moscow (1930) and Paris (1937), and physiology and physiological sciences, from Heidelberg (1907) to Brussels (1956). His tenure in Venezuela was prolific, resulting in approximately ten books and two novels, alongside essays and monographs in scientific journals and cultural publications, amassing a valuable collection that garnered him the UNESCO Kalinga Prize in 1955.

Political Activity
He co-founded the Unió Federal Nacionalista Republicana in 1916 and was a close associate of Francesc Layret. In the 1918 congressional elections, he was elected as a deputy for the Catalan Republican Party in the Figueres district. He successfully won re-election in 1919 and 1920 but resigned from Congress in 1923 due to Miguel Primo de Rivera's coup d'état.

Throughout the Second Spanish Republic, he occupied several significant roles. He served on the Junta de Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas de España, the Generalitat de Catalunya's Council of Culture, and the Governing Board of the Autonomous University of Barcelona from 1933 to 1939. Additionally, he led the Chamber Music Association of Barcelona as its president.

With the onset of the Spanish Civil War, he sought refuge with his family in Paris, subsequently relocating to Venezuela in 1939 upon an invitation from the Venezuelan government. There, he was appointed as a professor of physiology at the Universidad Central de Caracas' faculty of medicine. A year later, he established the Institute of Experimental Medicine, significantly contributing to the training of numerous Venezuelan doctors. He held the position of professor of biochemistry from 1946 and, from 1942, served as a professor of biology and biochemistry at the National Pedagogical Institute of Caracas.

Moreover, he was the pioneering president of the Catalan Center of Caracas, founded in 1945. He chaired the Floral Games of the Catalan Language in 1953 and contributed to the Catalan exile magazines Quaderns de l'Exili (1943-1947), published by the Catalan Community of Mexico, and La Nova Revista (1955-1958). In 1963, he settled in Mexico, where he passed away on January 12, 1965.

In a poignant tribute, the remains of Dr. August Pi-Sunyer were reinterred in the Municipal Cemetery of Roses from Mexico City in 1980.

Scientific Works
La vida anaerobia (1901) La antitoxia renal (1907) La unidad funcional (1919) Sistema neurovegetativo (1947) The Bridge of Life (1950) Classics of Biology (1955) Manual de medicina interna (1922) Traité de physiologie normale et pathologique (1931) Fisiología humana (1962)

Literary works
Màrtirs (1900) La novel·la del besavi (1944) Sunyer metges, pare i fill (1957)