Miguel Rolando Covian
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'''Miguel Rolando Covian''' ([[1913]]-[[1992]]), was an [[Argentina|Argentinean]]/[[Brazil|Brazilian]] physiologist, medical educator and writer.
Covian was born in [[Rufino]], [[Santa Fé Province]], [[Argentina]], on [[September 7]], [[1913]]. He studied at the Faculty of Medicine of the [[University of Buenos Aires]], where, while a student, he worked also as a teaching assistant in the Chair of [[Physiology]]. He graduated in 1942 and soon thereafter started a full time career in research on Physiology, initially in collaboration with [[Bernardo Houssay]], the great Argentinean physiologist, who later was awarded with the 1947 [[Nobel Prize]] in Medicine and Physiology for his investigations on the interaction between the [[hypophysis]] and the [[pancreas]] in the control of [[glucose]] [[metabolism]]. From 1945 to 1948, Covian worked at the [[Institute of Experimental Biology and Medicine of Buenos Aires]], a private research institution which Houssay and co-workers had founded in 1944, due to his dismissal from the University due to political persecution by the dictatorial regime of [[Juan Perón]]. There, he worked also with another eminent physiologist, [[Eduardo Braun-Menéndez]], and presented his doctoral dissertation, in 1948.
After his doctorate, Covian went for a post-doctoral fellowship by the [[Rockefeller Foundation]], at the [[Johns Hopkins University]], [[Baltimore]], [[USA]]. There he worked on the physiology of hemidecorticated animals and neurovegetative control, with several important physiologists, such as [[Phillip Bard]], [[Carl Richter]] and [[Vernon Mountcastle]]. He returned three years later to Argentina, to continue his participation at the Institute of Experimental Biology and Medicine, where, in 1952, he established the first experimental laboratory of [[neurophysiology]] of Argentina.
In 1955, Covian was already well known internationally for his research on the neurophysiology of the [[limbic system]]. He accepted an invitation from Dr. [[Zeferino Vaz]] to join the faculty of the recently founded [[Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto|School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto]] of the [[University of São Paulo]], at [[Ribeirão Preto]], [[São Paulo (state)|São Paulo]], [[Brazil]], as the chairman of the Department of Physiology, a post he held until 1974 and from 1978 to 1982. Under Covian's able and humane [[leadership]], the Department would grow to become one of the main excellence centers of research and education in [[Latin America]], with an excellent scientific staff, with prominent researchers such as [[Eduardo Krieger]], [[Renato Migliorini]], [[César Timo-Iaria]], [[José Antunes Rodrigues]], [[José Venâncio Pereira Leite]] and fellow Argentineans [[Maria Carmelo Lico]], [[Andrés Negro-Vilar]] and [[Ricardo F. Marseillan]]. Covian was involved in all aspects of scientific and educational progress in the physiological sciences. It was there too that Covian founded the first Brazilian laboratory of neurophysiology, which became a focal attraction point for many young researchers in the field, such as [[Anette Hoffmann]], [[Renato M.E. Sabbatini]], [[Norberto Garcia-Cairasco]] and many others.
Covian was extremely active as a scientific leader. He was one of the founders and a president of the [[Brazilian Society of Physiology]]. He also was a strong force behind the graduate programs of the School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, and an innovator in the use of new approaches to the teaching of physiology. He was active in the editorial boards of several international scientific journals, such as "Physiology & Behavior" and the monograph series of "[[Progress in Brain Research]]", a member to several international committees, the [[International Brain Research Organization]] and the [[Latin American Federation of Physiological Sciences]].
Covian's main achievement in neurophysiology was the systematic study, with a large group of collaborators, of the neural basis of [[thirst]], of [[neuroendocrine]] regulation of hydroelectrolytic [[homeostasis]], and of [[appetitive behavior]], i.e., the behavior which permit animals to seek and to ingest particular foodstuffs or [[diet (nutrition)|diet]] components, an activity which depends on many external and internal factors. The [[animal model]] used by Covian's group was the selective ingestion of [[water]] versus [[Brine|salt water]] in albino [[Norwegian rat]]s, which they investigated with many approaches and tools, such as after lesions and stimulations of the [[central nervous system]], measurement of [[metabolism|metabolic]] activity, manipulation of the activity of the [[endocrine system]], the effect of several kinds of [[medication|drugs]], etc. He also studied the role of the [[limbic system]] (particularly the [[septal area]]) on many behaviors and functions, such as the control of [[blood pressure]], the neuroendocrine regulation of [[reproductive behavior]], etc.
Prof. Miguel Covian was also a humanist, deeply interested in the [[History of science|history]] and [[philosophy of science]], [[history of medicine]], [[epistemology]], [[religion]], [[european classical music|classical music]] and erudite [[art]].
He retired at the mandatory age of 70, as a [[professor emeritus]], but continued to appear regularly his office in the department. Honored by his many colleagues, pupils and friends, Miguel Covian passed away on [[February 5]], [[1992]], following complications of a [[stroke]].
==Bibliography==
* Covian, MR: Studies on the neurovegetative and behavioral functions of the brain septal area. ''Prog Brain Res.'' 1967;27:189-217.
* Covian, MR: ''Fisiologia del Área Septal''. Conferéncias Eduardo Braun Menéndez. Buenos Aires, 1967.
==External links==
* Vicchi, F.L.: [http://www.pcarp.usp.br/acsi/anterior/748/mat3.htm O Professor Miguel Rolando Covian]. ''USP Ribeirão Preto'', Newsletter No. 748, 2002 (In Portuguese).
* [https://www.cle.unicamp.br/arquivoshistoricos/emiguelcovian.pdf Interview with Miguel Covian]. Center for Logics and Epistemology. State University of Campinas (In Portuguese)
[[Category:1913 births|Covian, Miguel Rolando]]
[[Category:1992 deaths|Covian, Miguel Rolando]]
[[Category:People from Santa Fe Province|Covian, Miguel Rolando]]
[[Category:Argentine physicians|Covian, Miguel Rolando]]
[[Category:Argentine scientists|Covian, Miguel Rolando]]
[[Category:Brazilians of Argentine descent|Covian]]
[[Category:Brazilian scientists|Covian, Miguel Rolando]]
[[Category:Brazilian neuroscientists|Covian, Miguel Rolando]]
[[Category:Brazilian physiologists|Covian, Miguel Rolando]]
[[Category:Brazilian physicians|Covian, Miguel Rolando]]
[[Category:University of São Paulo|Covian]]
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