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Walter Scott Hill and Uruguayan Physics

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Abstract

The history of physics in Uruguay has long been misunderstood by the country’s historians. This article proposes a new way of considering that past, researching the career of Walter Scott Hill at the Institute of Physics of the University of the Republic of Uruguay (Udelar). By doing so, not only can we fill a gap in the history of Uruguayan science, but we can also understand how important a role the laboratory had in the country’s physics and what ramifications this had. Uruguayan physics did not develop from a university chair or an institute or some scientific society; its embryo was the laboratory at the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying, part of the Institute of Physics at Udelar, even if its subsequent development did not apparently generate further fruit.

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Fig. 1

Source: Juan Gustavo Scheps Grandal, 17 registros: Facultad de Ingeniería de Montevideo (1936–1938) de Julio Vilamajó, arquitecto (Montevideo: Facultad de Arquitectura, Universidad de la República, 2008), 286

Fig. 2

Source: Walter S. Hill, “Boceto de proyecto para nuevo Instituto de Física,” Febrero 1935, Colección Walter S. Hill, Archivo, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay

Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Source: Walter S. Hill, “Resolución de la Asamblea de Estudiantes de Facultad de Ingeniería y Agrimensura,” Colección Walter S. Hill. Archivo, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay, May 17, 1956

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References

  1. Walter S. Hill, “Entrega título de Profesor Ad-Honorem, palabras del Decano interventor Alfredo De Santiago,” Colección Walter Hill. Archivo, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay (hereafter CWH), 1975.

  2. Revista de la Facultad de Ingeniería, Profesor “Ad Honorem” Ing. Walter S. Hill (Montevideo, junio, 1975).

  3. An example of this information gap can be seen in an article published in 2000: Ramón Ménez Galain, “La Física uruguaya: una historia reciente,” in Encontro de História da Ciencia, ed. Antonio A. P. Videira and Anibal G. Babiloni (Río de Janeiro: CBPF, 2001).

  4. A summary of Hill’s life an output can be found on the Historias Universitarias website (http://historiasuniversitarias.edu.uy/biografia/hill-walter/). The absence of sources prevents us from filling in Hill’s formative years in more detail. We were unable to find any information about his motivations for choosing engineering or whether he had a teacher or relative who influenced him and his commitment to physics.

  5. The comparative merit competition is the method used in Uruguay for selecting civil servants, and involves the appraisal of the applicants’ résumés and selection of the most meritorious.

  6. María L. Martínez, 75 primeros años en la formación de los ingenieros nacionales. Historia de la Facultad de Ingeniería (1885–1960) (Montevideo: Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de la República, 2014); Blanca Paris de Oddone, La Universidad de la República. Desde la crisis a la intervención, 1958–1973 (Montevideo: Ediciones Universitarias, 2010).

  7. Hill’s early academic essays include: “Televisión Eléctrica,” Revista de Ingeniería, Montevideo, 1932; “Teoría y Cálculo de un Circuito Oscilante con estabilización de Cuarzo Piezo eléctrico,” Revista de Ingeniería, Montevideo, 1933; “Nota sobre las Ecuaciones Dinámicas y Termodinámicas de los Fluidos en Movimiento,” Revista de Ingeniería, Montevideo, 1933; “Nota sobre el equilibrio de los Fluidos,” Boletín de la Facultad de Ingeniería, Montevideo, 1936; “Un Ejemplo de. Dosificación de Hormigones basado en la Compacidad de la Mezcla,” Revista de Ingeniería, Montevideo, 1936.

  8. We found no conclusive information about what led Hill to finally be appointed a professor on the quantic mechanics course. However, his trajectory suggests that from the beginning he showed an uncommon interest (for the Uruguayan milieu) in physics.

  9. At this event, he presented “Sobre una definición de los fluidos reales” [“On a Definition of Real Fluids”] (1937).

  10. For a study of Hill’s involvement in the project, see Juan Gustavo Scheps Grandal, 17 registros: Facultad de Ingeniería de Montevideo (1936–1938) de Julio Vilamajó, arquitecto (Montevideo: Facultad de Arquitectura, Universidad de la República, 2008).

  11. Walter S. Hill, letter to Luis Giorgi, December 13, 1935, CWH, folio 1. Luis Giorgi (1896–1967), a well-known road and bridge engineer, was elected dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying for the period 1934–37, and re-elected in 1939.

  12. Walter S. Hill, letter to Luis Giorgi, July 15, 1939, CWH.

  13. Walter S. Hill, Nota de compra de libro Handbuch der Physik, April 21, 1939, CWH.

  14. Walter S. Hill, letter to Luis Giorgi, April 17, 1939, CWH.

  15. Until the beginning of World War II, when Uruguay adopted a neutral position, Hill’s career developed in two directions: a professor and person with responsibility for physics at the university, and his career as an engineer. He maintained this latter occupation for two main reasons: 1) he had a large family; 2) the social status of engineers in Uruguay could grant him mobility.

  16. The Rockefeller Foundation’s presence in Latin America is a classic topic in the historiography of medicine and health. Recently, its interaction with physicists and mathematicians has begun to be investigated. Olival Freire Jr. and Indinara L. Silva, “Scientific Exchanges between the United States and Brazil in the Twentieth Century: Cultural Diplomacy and Transnational Movements,” in How Knowledge Moves—Writing the Transnational History of Science and Technology, ed. John Krige, 281–307 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019); Adriana Minor Garcia, “Manuel Sandoval Vallarta: The Rise and Fall of a Transnational Actor at the Crossroad of WWII Science Mobilization,” in Krige, How Knowledge Moves (ref. 17), 227–53.

  17. Félix Cernuschi (1907–99), born in Uruguay, pursued engineering studies in Buenos Aires. In the mid-1930s, he conducted graduate study in physics at Cambridge University with Arthur Stanley Eddington and Paul Dirac. At the beginning of the 1940s, he returned to Argentina to take up a post at the University of Tucumán.

  18. Rafael Laguardia (1906–80) was a Uruguayan mathematician who was jointly responsible for the development of mathematics at the Faculty of Engineering.

  19. Walter S. Hill, letter to Harry Miller, November 10, 1941, CWH.

  20. Walter S. Hill, letter to a Luis Giorgi, November 21, 1941, CWH.

  21. For more on Harry M. Miller, see Michael J. Barany, “The Officer’s Three Names: The Formal, Familiar, and Bureaucratic in the Transnational History of Scientific Fellowships,” in Krige How Knowledge Moves (ref. 17), 254–80.

  22. Walter S. Hill Fellowship Recorder Card, Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York (hereafter RF), RG 10.2, SPEC-Uruguay, Box 18, January 12, 1942.

  23. “Estimado amigo Hill … If I were able to talk with you again I would perhaps urge that you consider most seriously the advisability of taking with you to the United States your large family of small children. Perhaps you can talk over the matter with some of your friends who are recently been in the States.” Harry M. Miller, letter to Walter S. Hill, October 1, 1941, CWH, Box 1.

  24. Walter S. Hill Fellowship Recorder Card, RF, RG 10.2, SPEC-Uruguay, B18, RAC, 1943.

  25. The panel that judged Hill’s application was made up of Juan B. Maglia, Dr. Domingo Giribaldo, and the engineers Luis Giorgi and Eduardo García de Zúñiga.

  26. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias, “Resolución elevada al rector de la Universidad, Dr. Carlos Vaz Ferreira,” June 25, 1937 (Montevideo: Archivo, Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de la República) (hereafter FHC)

  27. For example, it was from that department that he organized visits by prominent physicists, such as the Argentina-based Uruguayan physicist Loedel Palumbo, the engineer Nestor B. Cacciapuotti, who worked at UNESCO, and the Argentine Ernesto Galloni. In all these cases, with greater or lesser success, Hill’s idea was that these foreign specialists should visit the university to give courses on the most recent developments in the area of physics.

  28. Heraclio D. Tavares, Alexandre Bagdonas, and Antonio A. P. Videira, “Transnationalism as Scientific Identity: Gleb Wataghin and Brazilian Physics, 1934–1949,” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 50, no. 3, (2020), 248–301.

  29. Walter S. Hill, letter to Gleb Wataghin, September 8, 1942, CWH, Box 1.

  30. Although the names of the works are not mentioned, they are most likely the two books that were published in 1941: Walter S. Hill, Teoría de las magnitudes físicas (Montevideo, s/d, 1941) and Walter S. Hill, Combustión nuclear (Rosario: Facultad de Ciencias Matemáticas, Físico-Químicas y Naturales Aplicadas a la Industria, Universidad del Litoral, 1941).

  31. This work is recognized as one of the first steps in the construction of physics in the city of Rosario, Argentina. Carlos D. Galles and Roberto Rivarola, “Apuntes para una historia de la física en Rosario,” in La física y los físicos argentinos. Historias para el presente, ed. D. Hurtado, 157–87 (Córdoba: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba-Asociación de Física Argentina, 2012).

  32. Miller reported to his superiors at the Rockefeller Foundation on January 20, 1943: “Now quite doubtful whether H. will be able to begin work in Sao Paulo, on fellowship, in early March, as his mission in U.S. is lasting much longer than expected, is not nearly terminated, and he fears that he will be required to follow it up after return. No action to be taken until receipt of a letter from H.” Harry M. Miller, Diaries (1942–1944) RF, officers’ diaries, RG 12, M-R, 1943, FA393.

  33. Walter S. Hill, letter to Gleb Wataghin, April 22, 1943, CWH, Box 1.

  34. This is how Miller described Hill in his letter to Van Vleck on January 11, 1943: “Professor Hill is a distinguished Uruguayan physicist who expects in March of next year to spend a year in work with Professor Wataghin at Sao Paulo, under Rockefeller Foundation auspices. He is a man of wide interests and charming personality and I am sure that you will enjoy meeting him and discussing matters of mutual interest.” Harry M. Miller, letter to John Hasbrouck van Vleck, January 11, 1943, CWH, Box 1.

  35. Walter S. Hill, letter to Harry Miller, February 18, 1944, CWH, Box 1.

  36. Enrique De Martini arrived as an industrial engineer and surveyor, going on to become Dean of the Faculty, 1959–63. Laura Levi, daughter of the well-known Italian mathematician Beppo Levi, pursued her academic career with a doctorate in physics, working at the University of Buenos Aires and specializing in the field of crystallography.

  37. The letter in which Hill recommended Massera to Miller reads as follows: “Now I wish to speak to you about a young mathematician who is interested in a fellowship. He is Professor Eng. José L. Massera, 28 years of age, a graduate from the Faculty in February 1943, who is practically in charge of the Institute of Mathematics, directed by our friend Laguardia, when he is abroad. He is a young man of exceptional talent and culture, especially in mathematics. He undertook brilliant studies at the Faculty and later showed a great vocation for teaching. Since 1937 he has been professor of Mathematical Analysis I. Knowing the merits of Prof. Massera and aware that his current aspiration is to expand his knowledge abroad, I thought it would be convincing if he made contact with the Rockefeller Foundation. For this reason, he will write to you a letter expressing his wishes. I trust that you will consider his request.” Harry M. Miller, letter to Walter. S. Hill, May 15, 1944, CWH, Box 1.

  38. For more on Beck, see: Augusto J. S. Fitas and Antonio A. P. Videira, “Guido Beck, Alexandre Proca, and the Oporto Theoretical Physics Seminar,” Physics in Perspective 9, no. 1 (2007), 4–25; Antonio A. P. Videira and Carlos F. Puig. Guido Beck: The Career of a Theoretical Physicist Seen through His Correspondence (San Pablo: Livraria da Física, 2020).

  39. Dalva L. A. de Faria and Marcia L. A. Temperini, “Hans Stammreich: um dos presentes de Hitler,” Química Nova 4, no. 9 (2019), 991–92.

  40. Hill’s isolation can be seen, for example, from his daily activities at the Faculty. In a letter to Miller from 1947, he states that “the Dean announced that all the theoretical Physics classes will be my responsibility, in order to directly observe the development of the new study program. Outside of classes, I will not have much free time during 1947.” Walter S. Hill, letter to Harry Miller, CWH, May 6, 1947, Box 1.

  41. Hill, “Correspondencia,” May 6, 1947 (ref. 40).

  42. El Bien Público was founded by Joaquín Secco Illia, Hill’s father-in-law and a prestigious lawyer and journalist from Montevideo, at the beginning of the twentieth century. Secco Illa was the founder of the Unión Cívica party and his newspaper promoted the party line as well as Catholic values.

  43. Clemente Estable was a Uruguayan pioneer in biological research. Thanks to a scholarship obtained in the 1920s, he managed to travel to Madrid to study at the Institute of Histological Research (Instituto de Investigaciones Histológicas), under the direction of Santiago Ramón y Cajal. A fuller biography and documentation can be seen in the Clemente Stable file of the General Archive of the University of the Republic (http://historiasuniversitarias.edu.uy/biografia/estable-clemente/). Rodolfo Tálice was a teacher of medicine and biology. His most important academic contributions were in natural history, and natural and experimental biology. Germán Villar was an engineer who dedicated his entire life to engineering from an academic perspective. He was one of the founders of the National Academy of Engineering of Uruguay.

  44. Emilio Bonnecarrére et al., “Sugestiones para la reunión de científicos latinoamericanos que se realizará este mes en Montevideo,” Ciencia e Investigación 9 (1948) 377–80.

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  45. On the role of UNESCO in promoting these scientific agendas in Latin America, see: Letícia Pumar Alves de Souza. A ciência e seus fins: internacionalismo, universalismo e autonomia na trajetória do fisiologista Miguel Ozório de Almeida (1890–1953) (PhD dissertation, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, 2015).

  46. Walter S. Hill, “Moción de Walter S. Hill para su participación en la Conferencia de Expertos Científicos Latinoamericanos,” September 1948, CWH, Box 1.

  47. Ana M. Ribeiro de Andrade and R. P. A. Muniz. “The Quest for the Brazilian Synchrocyclotron,” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 36, no. 2 (2006), 311–27.

  48. Anabella Abarzúa Cutroni, “Partículas universales: las misiones científicas de la UNESCO en Argentina (1954–1966)” Revista Iberoamericana de Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad 12, no. 36, (2017), 33–60.

  49. For information on the installation process and activities of the Uruguayan Association for the Progress of Science, see María L. Martínez, “La Asociación Uruguaya para al Progreso de la Ciencia,” Galileo 23 (2001), http://galileo.fcien.edu.uy/asociacion_uruguaya.htm.

  50. Irene de Ewenson (1917–2007) was a Jewish Polish physicist who managed to survive Nazi persecution during World War II, at the end of which she moved to Uruguay. Having studied physics before 1938, she began collaborating with the Institute of Physics at FIA and was the one who substituted Walter S. Hill as its director upon his retirement.

  51. The peculiarity of the Uruguayan university, the only one in the country at that time, made the regional struggle take on a national proportion. The student movement was important for driving change at the university, especially when it came to achieving self-rule and budgetary autonomy.

  52. Juan Oddone and Blanca Paris de Oddone, Historia de la Universidad de la República. Tomo II. La universidad del militarismo a la crisis. 1885–1985 (Montevideo: Ediciones Universitarias, 2010).

  53. Mario Cassinoni was trained as a physician and in the course of this training he became a university activist, first as a student and then as a professor.

  54. Oddone and Oddone, Historia de la Universidad (ref. 52), 186.

  55. Vania Markarián, Universidad, revolución y dólares. Dos estudios sobre la Guerra Fría cultural en el Uruguay de los sesenta (Montevideo: Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, 2020).

  56. See Angela N. H. Creager, “Atomic Tracings: Radioisotopes in Biology and Medicine,” in Science and Technology in the Global Cold War, ed. N. Oreskes and J. Krige, 31–73 (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2014).

  57. Carlos E. Berta was a Montevideo-based engineer who played a crucial role in the institutional development of the country. Parallel to his professional work, he pursued a forty-two-year career as a university professor, serving as dean between 1951 and 1958.

  58. Walter S. Hill, letter to Carlos E. Berta, June 12, 1951, CWH, Box 1.

  59. Justino Jiménez de Aréchaga was a well-known constitutional lawyer and legal expert in Uruguay, who was head of Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences.

  60. Walter S. Hill, letter to Justino Jiménez de Aréchaga, March 9, 1951, FHC, file 40, folder 67.

  61. Walter S. Hill, “Artículo publicado,” 1950 FHC, file 40, folder 67.

  62. “The Engineer Walter S. Hill, Director of the Institute of Physics carries out the first studies with radioisotopes at the Faculty of Engineering and built a scanner that was presented at the Montevideo Society of Medicine in December 1953 and exhibited at the First National Exhibition of Production in 1954.” Osvaldo J. Degrossi, Medicina Nuclear: Aplicaciones en diagnóstico y tratamiento, ed. Carlos Javier Pérez, 2nd ed. (Buenos Aires: Fundación Milbet de Ciencias Médicas, 2015).

  63. Enrique Coman, Memorias de un emigrante (Montevideo: Gráfica Mosca, 2013), 128.

  64. Not much information exists about Kurt Lasus, a physician who was born in Vienna and settled in Montevideo.

  65. Degrossi, Medicina Nuclear (ref. 62).

  66. The influence that students began to acquire in the university in general and in the Faculty of Engineering in particular, increased as the 1950s drew to a close, and the fact that he garnered the support of the student body speaks of the esteem Hill had earned among them. Facultad de Ingeniería, “Resolución de Asamblea Estudiantil,” May 17, 1956, Archivo, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay (hereafter FdI)

  67. Facultad de Ingeniería, “Actas del Consejo,” May 6, 1952, FdI.

  68. Walter S. Hill, letter to Oscar Secco Ellauri, January 26, 1953, CWH.

  69. Walter S. Hill, letter to Luis Giorgi, May 6, 1952, CWH.

  70. Jean Wyart (1902–92) was a French crystallographer, a member of the French Academy of Sciences, and professor at the University of Paris VI. At the time of Hill’s visit, he was running the Sorbonne mineralogy laboratory.

  71. Julio Palacios (1891–1970) was a Spanish physicist who specialized in X-ray diffraction.

  72. Ernesto Galloni was an Argentinian engineer. His major contributions were in crystallography. He was a researcher with the National Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina.

  73. Walter S. Hill, “Notas para la inauguración del curso de difracción por rayos X,” August 8, 1952, CWH.

  74. Walter S. Hill, letter to Zoel González Ruiz, August 28, 1952, CWH.

  75. Maurice Françon (1913–96), was a French physicist who worked mainly in optics.

  76. Walter S. Hill, letter to Leopoldo Agorio, February 2, 1953, CWH.

  77. Walter S. Hill, letter to Harry M. Mille, February 25, 1953, CWH.

  78. Hill, cited in Carlos Vaz Ferreira, letter to Leopoldo Lagorio, September 1, 1954, FHC, file 40, folder 67.

  79. Máximo E. Drets, Francisco Alberto Sáez: primer citogenetista de América Latina. Vida y Obra (1898–1976) (Montevideo: DIRAC, 2013).

  80. In this period, Hill wrote two papers: Walter S. Hill, José Obes Polleri, et al., Ensayo de Análisis Hidrodinámico de la Circulación Sanguínea, Revista de Ingeniería, Montevideo, 1959; Walter S. Hill, José Obes Polleri, “Elementary Hydrodynamic Basis of an analog of the global blood circulation: Congestive Pulmonary Failury,” in Pulsatile Blood Flow, ed. Ernst O. Attinger (New York: McGraw Hill, 1964), 407–12.

  81. Sven Furberg (1920–83) was a Norwegian chemist and crystallographer recognized for having predicted the helix structure of DNA.

  82. At Glasgow, supported by a grant from the British Council, he worked on various techniques for producing and interpreting X-ray diffraction diagrams of crystals. At the Cavendish Institute, his training specialized in the use of Geiger–Müller counters in crystallography, specifically diamonds. Finally, at the Laboratory of Mineralogy and Crystallography of La Sorbonne, he worked on an optical device for the molecular factor calculation. Walter S. Hill, “Informe de Stephenson Caticha Ellis a UNESCO,” July 4, 1957, CWH.

  83. Oddone, Universidad de la República (ref. 6).

  84. Hill had carried out research and communication activities on the subject of nuclear energy. Alongside the aforementioned book on nuclear combustion, in 1945 he wrote a series of articles in the newspaper El País entitled Nuclear Energy; and the same year he gave a lecture on atomic energy at the Naval Center.

  85. Facultad de Ingeniería, “Actas del Consejo,” October 10, 1962, FdI.

  86. Facultad de Ingeniería, “Actas del Consejo de Facultad,” 1962, FdI, 28–29.

  87. Carlos Aragone (1937–94) was a Uruguayan physicist who earned his degree at Udelar and went on to continue his studies at the University of Rome, specifically in the theory of relativity and field theory. In 1972 he settled in Venezuela, where he worked as a professor of physics until his death.

  88. Facultad de Ingeniería, “Actas del Consejo de Facultad,” 1962, FdI, 3. Searches of the FIA documentation and Hill’s personal archive did not reveal further information on Joachim Büchner.

  89. Facultad de Ingeniería, “Actas del Consejo de Facultad,” 1962, FdI, 22.

  90. Oscar Maggiolo was dean of Udelar from 1966 to 1972. He had trained in industrial engineering at FIA, then pursued studies abroad in fluid mechanics (France, England, and the United States). During his deanship, he presented an ambitious restructuring plan for the university, which was not finalized at that time.

  91. Oscar Gestido was a military man and politician who served as president of Uruguay for only nine months, taking office in February 1967 and dying in December of that year.

  92. Jorge Pacheco Areco, Gestido's successor, served as president of Uruguay until 1972. His term in office was marked by the use of harsh security measures to deter demonstrations by students and workers, and later, against the guerilla organization the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement.

  93. Oscar Maggiolo, Plan de reestructuración de la Universidad (Montevideo: Universidad de la República - División Publicaciones y Ediciones, 1986).

  94. Alfonso C. Frangella was an oncologist. He was president of the National Atomic Energy Commission from 1963 to 1970 and was the first president of the Uruguayan Society of Medicine and Nuclear Biology.

  95. Jorge Spitalnik was an industrial engineer who coordinated the program of the FIA Nuclear Research Center, installed during Maggiolo’s administration.

  96. Juan José Giambiagi (1924–96) was an Argentinean physicist who graduated from the University of Buenos Aires.

  97. Facultad de Ingeniería, “Física en la Universidad. Mesa Redonda realizada en la Universidad de la República,” December 14, 1966, CWH.

  98. Facultad de Ingeniería, Física en la Universidad (ref. 97).

  99. It is worth reproducing the associated list of consultancy and research the Institute of Physics had carried out until then: “This led us to stimulate consultancies and collaborations, not only with other university institutions, but with state and private entities, such as the Ministry of Industries, Livestock and Agriculture, Banco República, the Ministry of Public Health, Ancap, UTE. Some interesting research topics emerged from these relationships and also the promotion of some applied physics techniques in other fields of utility and interest. I will mention a few: the application of radioactive isotopes, hydrodynamics, blood circulation, phototherapy of infant jaundice, applied spectrography, applied acoustics, radioactive minerals of the country, preservation of food and perishable products, etc.” Facultad de Ingeniería, Física en la Universidad (ref. 97).

  100. CLAF was founded in 1962. In 1961 a meeting of specialists was held in Brazil, where the foundations were laid to create the center, with the support of UNESCO. Among its main lines of action were: training of human resources at graduate level, development of research, holding of congresses, schools, courses, international seminars, and international exchange and cooperation.

  101. This is a delicate topic: what was Hill’s political background? Although we have offered a tentative answer to this question, it is important to state our opinion on this matter. We are convinced that he avoided explicitly stating his political affiliations, especially in the university environment. It seems that Hill’s priority was to keep open all communications channels with other professors, scientists, and students at the university, irrespective of their political inclinations.

  102. Walter S. Hill, letter to Arturo Carbonell, July 10, 1967, CWH. A separate episode, of significance for the purposes of this work, had to do with the situation of the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying in the 1960s, which led, among other things, to the Central Board of Directors of Udelar decreeing the intervention of the service by directly appointing an interim dean. This situation is recounted in Markarián, Universidad (ref. 55).

  103. His close relationship with Harry Miller and the Rockefeller Foundation could have been instrumental in shaping Hill’s position toward this ideological conflict.

  104. Markarián, Universidad (ref. 55).

  105. Alfredo de Santiago was an engineer who was appointed by the government to serve as the interim dean of the Faculty of Engineering between 1973 and 1977. He was succeeded by Juan Carlos Patetta Queirolo.

  106. One of the most studied issues in Uruguayan history in recent years is the impact the dictatorship (1973–85) had on the public university, since the radical actions against the professors and students had long-term effects. Although it is a topic of current discussion, there is less scholarly reflection on the impacts of the dictatorship on science and its development. See Vania Markarián, La universidad intervenida. Cambios y permanencias de la educación superior uruguaya durante la última dictadura (1973–1984),” Cuadernos Chilenos de Historia de la Educación 4 (Santiago: Educación y dictaduras en el Cono Sur. Santiago de Chile, junio 2015).

  107. Vania Markarián, “Un intelectual comunista en tiempos de Guerra Fría,” Políticas de la Memoria 15, (2015), 215–24

  108. Juan Gustavo Scheps Grandal, 17 registros (ref. 11).

  109. Walter S. Hill, Combustión nuclear (Rosario: Facultad de Ciencias Matemáticas, Físico-Químicas y Naturales Aplicadas a la Industria, Universidad del Litoral, 1941).

  110. Christa Jungnickel and Russell McCormmach, Intellectual Mastery of Nature: Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein, 2 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986).

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Acknowledgements

One of the authors (AAPV) is grateful for the financial support granted by Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) through research grant 306612/2018-6 and by Faperj, through the Pro-Science program, as well as the logistical support provided by the Brazilian Center for Physics Research (Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas, CBPF/MCTI). Both authors also wish to thank the employees at the General Archives of Universidad de la República, especially the employees responsible for the archive at the Universidad de Facultad de Ingeniería, the graduates María Luisa Cora and Marcelo Marmoria, as well as the employees at the faculty’s library, who collaborated directly with this study. We also would like to thank the referee’s suggestions, which were crucial for improving this work.

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  1. Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of the Republic of Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Juan A. Queijo Olano

  2. State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Antonio A. P. Videira

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Correspondence to Juan A. Queijo Olano.

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Juan A. Queijo Olano is Professor at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of the Republic of Uruguay. He is the author of The Low-Tone Science: The Emergence of Physics in Latin America from an Epistemological Perspective (State University of Rio de Janeiro, 2021). Antonio A. P. Videira is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the State University of Rio de Janeiro and of History of Science at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He is the author, with Carlos F. Puig, of Guido Beck—The Career of a Theoretical Physicist Seen through His Correspondence (Livraria da Física, 2020).

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Olano, J.A.Q., Videira, A.A.P. Walter Scott Hill and Uruguayan Physics. Phys. Perspect. 24, 35–71 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-021-00284-2

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