Thesis: Sinergias fisiológicas y sinergias mórbidas. Thesis (doctoral)–Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, 1902.
Location: Series 2:1 (Argentina, Buenos Aires) Box 1 : Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires (1895-1902)
Pedro Escudero was born in Buenos Aires on August 11, 1877 to Agustín Escudero and Margarita Osácar. He received his bachelor’s degree at the Colegio Nacional Central, and then went to medical school at the Universidad de Buenos Aires where he graduated in 1902. His thesis, Sinergias Fisiológicas y Sinergias Mórbidas, received a Medal of Honor from the school.
His medical career began in Barracas al Norte, a populous and poor area of Buenos Aires. In 1904 he became the head of service of the Hospital Rawson, a position he held until 1928. He was later the head of the Sala V del Hospital de Clínicas, and was the president of the Asociación Médica Argentina from 1919-1922. He was also a professor at the Clínica Médica, gaining full professorship in 1921.
Escudero is most noted for his work in the field of nutrition. One of his major professional goals was to create, first, a municipal and then a national institute of nutrition in Argentina. In 1928, the Instituto Nacional de la Nutrición was founded, and Escudero was its director from 1928 until 1935. His other advances in nutrition include assisting in the creation a school for dieticians and founding a chair of nutrition, which he was the first to hold. Because of these accomplishments, he is considered the “father of nutrition” in South America, and his birthday is now the Día del Nutricionista in all of Latin America.
Pedro Escudero died January 23, 1963.
Sources:
Landabure, P. B. Pedro Escudero: su pensamiento, su doctrina, y su obra. La Prensa Médica Argentina 55: 1983-89.
Biographies of selected authors from the New York Academy of Medicine Collection of International Medical Theses written by Amanda Allgood, B.A., M.L.S.