Óscar Saavedra San Martín

Óscar Saavedra San Martín (29 June 1940 – 8 April 2018), was a Bolivian physicist and academic. His work focused on cosmic rays and neutrinos, with most of his academic career spent in Italy at the University of Torino.

Early life He was born in La Paz, Bolivia. He attended Colegio San Calixto as a teenager in La Paz, where he volunteered at the school's astronomical observatory. Upon recommendation from one of his instructors, he began work at the Mount Chacaltaya Laboratory. Italy in 1964, for his thesis developed at the EURATOM (Nuclear Research Center of Europe): "No conservation of parity in strong interactions" (Parity non conservation in Strong Interactions).

After graduate study, Saavedra returned to Bolivia. In 1966, at the age of 25, he became the director of the Chacaltaya Cosmic Physics Laboratory, the youngest in the institution's history. He served in this position until returning to Italy to pursue research opportunities in 1968. University of Tokyo and University of Kiel. He was awarded professor emeritus status from the University of Turin upon his retirement.