User:Jaardouin/Jorge Allende

Jorge Eduardo Allende, is an Chilean biochemist and biophysicist known for his contributions to the understanding of proteic biosynthesis and how transfer RNA is generated, and the regulation of maturation of amphibian eggs. He has been a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences since 2001, and was awarded with the chilean National Prize for Nature Sciences in 1992.

Biography
Early life

Jorge Allende was born in Cartago, Costa Rica, son of Octavio Allende Echeverría, Chilean Consul in the city ofPuntarenas and Amparo Rivera Ortiz a Costa Rican artist. Because of his father job as an diplomat, he spent his childhood yaers betwen Costa Rica, Chile and the United States. He finished his high school in a Jesuit School in New Orleans, Louisiana, where his father was appointed as the Chilean Consul. . Subsequently he studied in the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In this University he obtained a degree of Bachelor of Sciences in Chemistry in 1957.

Carrer

He carried out his doctoral studies at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1961 under the tutorship of Prof. F.M. Richards. He did post doctoral work with Prof. Fritz Lipmann at Rockefeller University and with Marshall Warren Nirenberg at NIH.

During the 1960s, his research was focused on protein synthesis, a field in he made crucial contributions. In the 1970s he was a pioneer in studying the mechanism of hormonal induction of oocyte maturation. His later research is focused in two ubiquitous protein kinases, CK1 and CK2, involved in the phosphorylation of key cellular proteins.

He devoted much of his life to organizing activities for the scientific integration in Latin America especially through organizing series of training courses in molecular biology techniques, and through the creation of the Latin American Network of Biological Sciences.

In recent years, Doctor Allende has been an promoter of science education through his personal commitment in several projects, like the Science Education Inquiry Based program, funded by the University of Chile, and through his participation in the Allende-Connelly Foundation, founded by he and his wife.

Currently he is professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Research Vice President of the University of Chile.

Personal Life

He married Catherine Connelly in Holyoke, Massachusetts, On September 16th 1961. He raised a family of four children: Miguel Luis, Juan Ignacio, Jorge Eduardo and Maria Amparo and 13 grandchildren.

With his wife, Catherine Connelly, he was making a stay at the University of California at San Diego, when there was the 1973 coup in Chile. He returned to Chile in May 1974 where he was one of the main defenders of university autonomy, endangered by the military intervention in academic life. In December 1975 he signed with other academic a letter entitled "University under surveillance" against military intervention in the University of Chile, written by philosopher Jorge Millas and published in the newspaper "El Mercurio". The letter was the first appearance of a public statement by a group of academics who criticized the handling of the University of Chile by the military government.

Awards and distinctions

 * 2005 - Member of the Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Argentina
 * 2002 - Medal of the Grand Cross of the Scientific Merit awarded by the President Brazil.
 * 2001 - Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
 * 1993 - Honorary Doctorate from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
 * 1992 - National "Natural Sciences Award of Chile".
 * 1990 - Foreign Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
 * 1986 to 1988 - "Scholar in Residence" of the Fogarty International Center in the United States.
 * 1986 - Founding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Third World.
 * 1983 - Member of the Chilean Academy of Sciences.
 * 1982 - Founding member of the Academy of Sciences of Latin America.