Jorge Eduardo Allende is a Professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 at the University of Chile. He has contributed to the understanding of how transfer RNA

Transfer RNA

Transfer RNA is an adaptor molecule composed of RNA, typically 73 to 93 nucleotides in length, that is used in biology to bridge the three-letter genetic code in messenger RNA with the twenty-letter code of amino acids in proteins. The role of tRNA as an adaptor is best understood by...

 is generated, and the regulation of maturation of amphibian

Amphibian

Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...

 egg

Ovum

An ovum is a haploid female reproductive cell or gamete. Both animals and embryophytes have ova. The term ovule is used for the young ovum of an animal, as well as the plant structure that carries the female gametophyte and egg cell and develops into a seed after fertilization...

s. He has been a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences

United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

since 2001.

He was born in Cartago, Costa Rica, son of Octavio Allende Echeverría (Chilean) and Amparo Rivera Ortiz (Costa Rican) on November 11, 1934.

Between 1947 and 1949, he studied in the Liceo Aleman of Santiago. In 1949 he moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, where his father had been appointed Chilean Consul. He studied and graduated from Jesuit High School and subsequently studied in the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La. In this University he obtained a degree of Bachelor of Sciences in Chemistry in 1957. He carried out doctoral studies at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1961 under the tutorship of Prof. F.M. Richards.

On September 16, 1961, he married Catherine Connelly in Holyoke, Massachusetts and with her, he raised a family of four children: Miguel Luis, Juan Ignacio, Jorge Eduardo and Maria Amparo and 10 grand children.

In 1961 he entered as an academic in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile, where he has stayed to the present time.

His scientific interests have evolved with time from the initial studies on mechanisms of protein biosynthesis, the genetic code, the effects of progesterone on the meiotic maturation of oocytes, the metabolism of cAMP and in the last decade on protein kinases, enzymes that phosphorylate other proteins.

His undergraduate teaching was concentrated n the chapters of Molecular Biology, Genetic Engineering, the Human Genome and the Oncogenes.

At the postgraduate level he has tutored 24 Doctoral thesis and several Master's thesis. He has had post-docs from Italy, Belgium, USA, Argentina, Costa Rica and Chile.

He was the first director of the Instituto de Ciencias Biomedicas (ICBM) of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, between the years 1996-2002.

He has dedicated much effort in the organization of activities leading to the scientific integration of Latin America especially through the organization of a series of Training Courses on Techniques of Molecular Biology in a 20 years period (1968–1988) and the generation of the Latin American Network of Biological Sciences (RELAB).

He has also been involved in the organization of a number of studies and events about the development of science in Chile through his involvement in the Chilean Academy of Sciences.

In recent years, he has contributed in the generation of the Project of Inquiry Based Science Education in Chile which in the year 2006 benefited more than 30.000 children in 94 schools in 6 cities of the country. He is coordinator of the global program on science education of the Inter Academy Panel and at the hemispheric level by the Inter American Network of Academies of Sciences (IANAS).