BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

HIS LIFE - NOTES - Drafts
(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....