Carlos Chagas Filho

Carlos Chagas Filho Carlos Chagas Jr., ( born September 12, 1910 in Rio de Janeiro, † February 16, 2000 ) was a Brazilian biophysicist and founder of the Institute of Biophysics at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.

He was the son of Carlos Chagas and studied medicine from 1926 to 1931 at the State University in Rio. In 1932 he became director of the hospital in Lassance in the province of Minas Gerais, where his father at that time discovered Chagas disease. Because he wanted to be involved in research, he went back to university in Rio, where he became professor of biophysics. For training in neurophysiology, he visited England and France. From the foundation in 1946 to 1980 he was Director of the Biophysics Institute and also at times dean of the medical faculty. The Institute is now named after him ( ICBBF ).

He studied the mechanisms of the electrical discharge in the electric eel of the Amazon and their control by the nervous system. Here, get him some neuroscientific discoveries such as the identification of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor of the muscles. From 1965 to 1967 he was president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. He was also from 1972 to 1989 for sixteen years president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He belonged to beyond the French Legion of Honour, the Académie des Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1976 the Leopoldina, and received sixteen honorary doctorates from various universities. In 1966, he was Brazil's UNESCO representative.

In 1974 he was elected a member of the Academia Brasileira de Letras, seat 9 selected.

He wrote several books, including a biography of his father, published in 1993.