Arturo Rosenblueth

Arturo Rosenblueth (* October 2, 1900 in Ciudad Guerrero, Chihuahua- † September 20, 1970 in Mexico City) was a Mexican researcher, physician and physiologist.

In 1930 he obtains a Guggenheim Scholarship and moves to Harvard University, to the department of Physiology, then directed by Walter Cannon. In 1934 he worked with Cannon on issues related with Chemical transmission among nervous elements. Between 1931 and 1945 he worked with several specialists, among them Cannon, del Pozo, H.G. Schwartz, and Norbert Wiener, the last of whom he wrote with "Behavior, Purpose and Teleology", which, according to Wiener himself, set the bases for the new science of Cybernetics. Between 1947 and 1949, and again between 1951 and 1952, under grants of Rockefeller Foundation he continued his work along side Wiener.

In the late 1940's, Rosenblueth returns to Mexico to head the department of Physiology of the new National Institute of Cardiology, where Cannon, Wiener, Luco and Osher will eventually work.

In 1961 he took the position of Director of the National Centre for Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV), which he held until June 1970.

Arturo Rosemblueth died September 20th, 1970.

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Positions Held

Rosenblueth was a professor of physiology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico; head of the Physiology Laboratory of the National Institute of Cardiology; head of the Physiology Department and director of the Center for Scientific Research and Advanced Studies (Cinvestav) at the National Polytechnic Institute.

Research Interests

He devoted himself to the fields of nervous impulse transmissions, neuromuscular transmission, synaptic transmission, the propagation of impulses in the heart, the control of blood circulation, and the physiology of brain cortex. However he also taught several courses of mathematics and even musicology.

Quotes

"The best model of a cat is another cat..., specially the same cat."

Selected Publications

• Arturo Rosenblueth, Norbert Wiener, Julian Bigelow: Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (1943)
• Arturo Rosenblueth, Walter Cannon: Fisiología del sistema nervioso autónomo ("Physiology of the Autonomous Nervous System") (1937)
• Arturo Rosenblueth: "Mente y Cerebro: una filosofia de la ciencia" (Mind and Body: a philosophy of science) (1970)