The Argentine physiologist Bernardo Alberto Houssay (1887-1971) is noted for his research in endocrinology, particularly on the activity of the hypophysis.

Bernardo Alberto Houssay was born in Buenos Aires on April 10, 1887. His father, Alberto Houssay, was a French-born lawyer and philosopher. Young Bernardo was a prodigy: by the age of 9 he had completed secondary school and was a mere 13 when he received his bachelor's degree. He then entered the Buenos Aires College of Medical Sciences, specializing in pharmacology, a concentration which was to be reflected in many of his research papers over the next 60 years. In 1904 he completed these studies and began medical training.

Houssay graduated with honors in 1911, presenting for his thesis an elaborate study of the pituitary body. These early studies marked Houssay as a laboratory researcher rather than as a practitioner of medicine. He was named professor of physiology in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine...