Adverse Conditions for Science during the First Years of the National University of Mexico

Abstract

In Mexico, unlike other countries, most frontier scientific research is carried out in public universities.  This link began in 1910 with the creation of the National University of Mexico, whose objectives included the development of basic science.  Using a systemic approach, this work shows that this mission was initially unfeasible due to the excessive opening granted to foreign investors during the Porfiriato (1877-1911). The Mexican Revolution fought off this economic structure and it was university autonomy (1929) that legally granted freedom to develop frontier science, leading to the institutionalization of the corresponding scientific research and the professionalization of the physical-mathematical sciences.