HIS LIFE
(English Version)
by Margue Peckar and Yuko Hiroko
...a man of three nations
(France, USA, and Colombia) and many talents.."
Born in Ipiales 48 years ago.
Artur was living in Bogotá from 1973 to 1979. In Paris,
France for 7 years (from 1979 to 1983 continuously, and
two years, 1984 and 1985, between Miami, Florida, USA
and Paris). 21 years in USA, 19 years in New York, USA.
HIS
ABILITY TO BALANCE AND BLEND THREE DIFFERENT WORLDS
SHAPED THIS SCIENTIST'S LIFE AND, PROBABLY, HIS ATTITUDE
TOWARD SCIENCE....
Many
scientists were born in some place of the world, perhaps
raised, in one or more countries, then, sometime between
babyhood and young adulthood, you move to another
halfway around the world. Its chief language and culture
are completely different from your own. You most learn
to get along in the new culture and add it to the old.
Three cultures, and the task of blending them are sure
to affect your life. Many scientists have had this
experience. Dr. Coral after his birth 48 years ago,
spent his early life in other countries and then came to
The United States of America, after finishing his higher
level education in some universities of Paris, France,
and other great educational institutions. Dr. Coral
immigrated to Paris, France, as young adult to advance
their education and work in his scientific career,
Bio-Medical Sciences (Specialty in Nuclear Medicine,
MEDICAL IMAGING)
His
ability to balance and blend three very different worlds
shaped this scientist's life and, probably, his attitude
toward science.
Dr. Coral, who moves from three different cultures,
European, Latin and then to the Western (USA) in 1986
says that he "never really felt that [he] fit in"
with either Latin, European or Western (USA) cultures.
This may have helped to draw him toward the world of
explosive growth and social impact of Internet
(computers) in this new millennium, which has its own
culture.
The changes in cultures rather than discouraging him,
however, this setback simply increased his desire to
succed. "People get to this new world, and they want
to carve out their place in it" he has said. "The
result is dedication and a higher level of work
ethic..... You always retain a bit of an underdog
mentality." Dr. Coral brought elements of its
European and Latin heritages into its new Western (USA)
life. When left Europe and Latin America, he promised
his parents to "keep straight and be true to myself
and, more than all, be worthy of the very fine cultural
atmosphere which has surrounded me..... from my
younghood." he has said and he kept his promese.
The result has been a cultural mixture of which this
scientist is rightly proud. Dr. Coral wrote: "I
am..... a product of three cultures the European, the
Latin and the Western (USA) in harmony. I am proud of
myself and of my heritage..... as I am devoted to modern
science and to the State-of-the-Art technology, a part
of human civilization of Western origin, to which I have
dedicated..... my work."....
Having
to build bridges between three cultural worlds may have
helped Dr. Coral to develop the flexibility and
imagination to build bridges in their work, too. As a
Bio-Medical resercher, he has to combine the very
different approches of Physics, Medicine, Engineering,
Chemistry, Electronics, Informatics..... in more than
three different languages including French, Spanish,
English and some Italian and Portugues. Most of his
scientific publications in Internet are multilingual
showing a high respect for education.
Along with a drive toward education came an emphasis on
self-discipline, precision, and achievement.
"Self-learning and personal excellence" shaped his life.
"Intense discipline about his work, an insistence that
everything be net and perfect", an attitude he probably
learned from his equally perfectionist father.
Dr.
Coral started out in Electronics and Physics and
switched to Medicine. Discipline and precision are
accompanied by a seemingly endless appetite for hard
work. "Thinking is a continuous process."
An appreciation of the simplicity that lies behind the
complexity of nature is a final characteristic that may
have come from Dr. Coral background. "In the study of
nature, one believes in something simple underlying all.
The.... simplicity and.... beauty of the symmetries
that.... envolve from complex experiments are, for the
physicists, great sources of encouragement.".
Dr.
Coral says: "I become a scientist because I have
always been fascinated with exploring and undestanding
complexity.... we have learned that what may seem a
complicated phenomenon in nature almost always has a
very elegant and simple explanation.... The search for
elegant solutions has undercored much of my work."
Wherever this almost artistic love of the simple truth
and beauty of nature came from, it is obvious in the
work of Dr. Coral. Science is the richer for it.
Dr. Coral holds his doctoral Degree in Bio-Medical
Sciences from the prestigious Paris' university. For
more than 20 years-after he became Electronics
Engineer-he has written and edited scientific
educational materials and is author of more than 450 Web
Sites in Internet including Science, Travel, Arts,
Regional, Digital Newspapers and Ciberzines,.... all for
educational purposes....
