José Antonio Balseiro

Balseiro studied at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in his home city, before moving to La Plata to study and research, obtaining a doctorate in physics at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

The Argentine government requested that he return to Argentina in 1952, a few months before the expiration of his scholarship, to serve in the scientific review panel of the Huemul Project, a study on nuclear fusion conducted by Ronald Richter.

Balseiro's report and those of other members of the panel finally convinced the government that the Huemul Project had no scientific merit.

Based on this, and reports from a second review panel (composed of physicists Richard Gans and Antonio Rodríguez), the Huemul Project was abandoned.

In 2005 the Instituto Balseiro celebrated 50 years of existence, having grown to become one of the country's leading centers for research in new technology, physics, and nuclear engineering.