Mapping Manuel Sandoval Vallarta (1899-1977) Scientific Contribution

María de la Paz Ramos-Lara; Gustavo Carreón-Vázquez; Edgar Acatitla-Romero; Rosa María Mendoza-Rosas

doi:10.1007/s10699-022-09872-y

Mapping Manuel Sandoval Vallarta (1899-1977) Scientific Contribution

Found Sci. 2022 Sep 28:1-28. doi: 10.1007/s10699-022-09872-y. Online ahead of print.

Authors

María de la Paz Ramos-Lara¹, Gustavo Carreón-Vázquez², Edgar Acatitla-Romero³, Rosa María Mendoza-Rosas¹

Affiliations

¹ Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Sciences and Humanities, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico.
² Institute of Economic Research, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico.
³ Faculty of Accounting and Administration, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico.

Abstract

This paper employs network theory, mining data and bibliometric analysis when mapping the scientific contribution of Nobel Prize candidate; Manuel Sandoval Vallarta, the first and most renowned Mexican physicist and important figure in Latin American science. Vallarta died in 1977, and the existing literature is about his life and contributions to science but not about how those are still valuable today. This paper is the first to highlight, with mapping tools, that his contributions are relevant to the international community of cosmic rays (as he was pioneer and leader), quantum mechanics and relativity. These tools delivered three findings: Identify how he built his own field of study, same as universal knowledge. Unveil that the backward and forward Vallarta citations follow a scale-free network distribution. Determine social factors that benefited or affected his scientific activities-such as World War II interrupting Vallarta's successful productivity at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Furthermore, this study confirmed the interdisciplinary nature of the mapping studies of the scientist's contributions using scientometric tools. As a result, several interesting questions arose throughout our research, some of which were answered from the history and philosophy of science. However, others need to be analyzed by experts in the fields of Vallarta. Mapping research sends an invitation to interdisciplinary dialogue/research between experts in different areas of study to better understand the process of knowledge production both, individual and collective.

Keywords: Bibliometric analysis; Cosmic rays; Interdisciplinary research; Manuel Sandoval Vallarta (Mexico); Mapping scientific production; Network theory and tag-clouds; Quantum mechanics and relativity.

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