Director del CIQUIBIC desde 1994 hasta 2000   
Professor Hector Silvio Barra was born in Alicia, a small countryside town of the agricultural region of the province of Cordoba, Argentina, where he finished his high school education. As was the case of many descendants of immigrants in Argentina which were of humble origin, he pursued a University degree. For this, he moved to the "big city" of Cordoba on 1957 and studied Pharmacy and Biochemistry at the National University. His interest in academic matters was obvious early in his career when, together with another graduate student, Federico A. Cumar, he collaborated actively with Prof. R. Caputto in the creation of the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of Cordoba. In 1966 he received his Ph.D. degree from the same University under the supervision of Professor Ranwel Caputto.
     Dr. Barra's many scientific contributions began with his early work on the sulfation of milk oligosaccharides and glycolipids. At that time (1965) the success of this type of studies depended not only on the researcher's skill but also on his hard work because acceptors and donor nucleotides were not commercially available. The perseverance of Hector Barra in preparing the sulfate donor (PAPS) made it possible to carry out these studies successfully. However Dr. Barra's international recognition came from his pioneer work on the post translational modification of proteins, a work that is continued in Dr. Barra's laboratory until now. Specifically important were his investigations on the posttranslational addition of tyrosine to tubulin, the main protein of microtubules, by the enzyme tubulin tyrosine ligase and the release of tyrosine from tubulin by the enzyme tubulin tyrosine carboxypeptidase. His research group at that time included Julio Rodriguez, Carlos Arce, Marta Hallak and Carlos Argarana.Dr. Barra has continued interested in this field working with many other graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with which he arrived to the complete description of the complex mechanisms underlying tyrosination - detyrosination of tubulin, establishing a novel concept of cell biology and biochemistry. This protein modification originally described in brain, was later on found to occur in other cell types such as liver, blood cells, etc.
     In addition to his extensive research and teaching accomplishments, Dr. Barra has had, and has at present, an important influence on the administration of science in Argentina and specially at the National University of Cordoba. Prof. Barra was twice Chair of the Department of Biological Chemistry which evolved to the current Center for Investigation of Biological Chemistry at Cordoba (CIQUIBIC), being its Director until 2001. Dr. Barra was elected Dean of the School of Chemical Sciences at the University of Cordoba in 1998-1999, where he continued with the academic tasks necessary to consolidate the whole School as a research center of international recognition.