Ricardo Miledi

Ricardo Miledi y Dau (Chihuahua, Mexico, September 15, 1927 - Irvine, California, United States, December 18, 2017) was a renowned Mexican neuroscientist.

Biography

He studied medicine at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. His greatest contributions to neuroscience are the discovery that calcium entry into the presynaptic terminal is necessary to produce neurotransmitter release and the use of statistical methods to study the 'noise' of the cell membrane. Through an analysis of variance, Ricardo Miledi and Bernard Katz managed to provide the first evidence of the existence of ion channels in the neuromuscular synapse.

Miledi began his scientific career in Mexico, and continued his research in various laboratories in Australia, the United Kingdom, Italy and the United States. She was a member of the Royal Society in Great Britain, the National Academy of Sciences in the United States, and the Mexican Academy of Sciences.

On June 19, 1992, he was awarded an Honoris Causa Doctorate by the University of the Basque Country - Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea. He received the Prince of Asturias Award in 1999.

He was an Extraordinary Researcher at the Institute of Neurobiology of the UNAM; in Querétaro, Mexico, and was a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine.

On April 12, 2007, Dr. Ricardo Miledi received the Honoris Causa Doctorate from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the highest recognition granted by the university.

On December 18, 2017, Dr. Ricardo Miledi passed away in Irvine, California, United States.