Antonio Madinaveitia y Tabuyo
(Madrid, 1890 - México D.F., 1974)

Antonio Madinaveitia was the son of the famous physician Juan Madinaveitia. He studied secondary education at the Instituto Cardenal Cisneros in Madrid. In 1905, he traveled to Switzerland to study Chemical Engineering at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,) in Zurich. He began his Ph.D. in 1910 supervised by Richard Willstätter, and submitted his dissertation, entitled “Zur Kenntnis der Katale,” in 1912.

He returned to Spain in 1913 to complete his B.A. degree in pharmacy in Barcelona, he finished his Ph.D. in Madrid, with a dissertation on “Estudio de los fermentos oxidantes,” and joined the Laboratory of Biological Chemistry of the JAE as an assistant to the chair of José Rodríguez Carracido. In April 1916, he obtained the chair of Organic Chemistry Applied to Pharmacy in Granada but remained in Madrid as director of the Laboratory of Biological Chemistry of the JAE, in the Residencia de Estudiantes.

He specialized in the chemistry of natural products, and the synthesis of organic medicines. In 1922, he finished his B.S. in chemistry, and obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry with a dissertation on “Estudio de la micra del pino.” In December 1925, he became professor of Organic Chemistry Applied to Pharmacy in Madrid, and in November 1930, his Laboratory of Organic and Biological Chemistry joined the National Institute of Physics and Chemistry, as the Organic Chemistry Section.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was named member of the JAE and Dean of Pharmacy, and carried on his activity during the war at the Casa de la Cultura in Valencia. Exiled in France, he worked for a few months in the Laboratoire de Chimie Organique at the Sorbonne.

In July 1939, he moved to Mexico sponsored by the Casa de España. He established the Institute of Chemistry at the Universidad Autónoma de México and worked for several chemical companies until his death.