President, Brazilian Academy of Sciences

Member of the IAC Board

Eduardo Moacyr Kreiger is President of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.  Born in Cerro Largo, Rio Grande do Sul on June 27, 1928. In 1953, during the last term of his medical course at Faculdade de Medicina de Porto Alegre, working at Serviço de Cardiologia of Prof. Rubens Maciel, he already decided to pursue a university career in the clinical area.

He worked on experimental hypertension with Prof. Eduardo Braun Menendez in Porto Alegre and Buenos Aires, and this represented the major influence for his choice for a scientific career. He completed his scientific formation in cardiovascular physiology with Prof. W. Hamilton in Augusta, Georgia, USA from 1956 to 1957.

Back to Brazil, he started working at the new Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, USP, in the Physiology Department, directed by Prof. Covian, a neurophysiologist, who belonged to Prof. Houssay's group. There, he developed his scientific career from Assistant Professor to Full Professor (1974), creating a cardiovascular physiology group which was responsible for the formation of new groups that now act in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Vitoria, Porto Alegre and Recife.

His main research field was to the study in experimental hypertension models the mechanisms of blood pressure regulation, mainly the neurogenic mechanisms. He described a sino-aortic denervation method in the rat which is worldwide employed. His studies on the baroreceptor adaptation in hypertension and hypotension are widely recognized.

Along with his activities as a professor and researcher, he also worked in the development of the University and Science in the country. He participated in the university reform at USP from 1968 to 1969, and cooperated with the comissions of CNPq, CAPES and FAPESP. He was the President of the Brazilian Society of Physiology and the first President of the Federation Societies of Experimental Biology. In the hypertension field, he was the President of the Inter-American Society of Hypertension, and first President of the Brazilian Society of Hypertension.

He is one of the three editors who founded and directed the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Scientific Research, one of the scientific journals of best quality in the country. He is currently the President of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.

He has published more than 120 complete works in international journals. Under his orientation, 19 Masters and 23 PhDs were graduated. Since his retirement, 1953, he has been working in hypertension at the Heart Institute, FMUSP, having under his direction a multidisciplinary research group, including molecular biologists, physiologists and clinical doctors.