Santiago Antunez de Mayolo he was an engineer and learned naturalist. He is the son of Ángel Custodio Antúnez and María Bárbara Gomero Quijano. He was born in Aija (Ancash) on January 10, 1887 and died in Miraflores (Lima) on April 20, 1967 . He studied primary school in his hometown and in Huaraz, later going on to attend secondary school at the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe national school in Lima. He distinguished himself from a young age by his application to motors and research in the electronic field. Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo He obtained a bachelor's degree in Sciences from the National University of San Marcos (1906), with a thesis on the disintegration of the atom; He continued his studies in Civil and Electrochemical Engineering at the University of Grenoble (France) and carried out training stays in Edinburgh and New York. Returning to his homeland, he received his doctorate from the University of San Marcos in 1923, with the thesis Kinetic theory of Newtonian potential, in which he defined the planetary system with advanced hypotheses. He brilliantly participated in the Pan-American Scientific Congress in Lima (1924) and later, in the workshops of the Associated Electric Companies, he began the construction of an accelerator. The fundamental studies for the construction of the hydroelectric power plant of the Pato Canyon (120 thousand Hp), inaugurated in 1941, are owed to him. In collaboration with the interests of the Bentín family business, he began the construction of the Pátivilca-Huaraz highway (1925 ). In addition, Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo designed the Machu Picchu power plant, enabling the operation of the fertilizer factory in Cachimayo (Cuzco), next to the large hydroelectric complex in the Mantaro Valley, which is known by his name.
He also dealt with the use of water for navigation and irrigation:he formulated a project to facilitate navigation on the Marañón River from the port of Nazareth to Pongo de Manseriche and designed the necessary means for the irrigation of the Olmos pampa, projected the diversion of the waters of the Mantaro in order to generate a million kilowatts in the Rímac valley and nourish the coastal valleys of Chancay to Chincha with the vital liquid.
Teaching and works of Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo
Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo taught at the National School of Arts and Crafts (1933-1945) and was a professor of Physics and Electrical Traction at the National School of Engineers. In his San Marcos alma mater he ran the chairs of Electrochemistry, Nuclear Physics and General Physics. As dean of the Faculty of Chemistry at the latter house of studies (1953-1957), he obtained from the United States government a donation of modern instrumentation analysis equipment, the best in South America, for whose operation he took many students to train in American universities. In the area of disclosure, he published numerous brochures and newspaper articles in El Comercio , The Press , Weather and other organs; he left a manuscript history of the province of Aija, which has never been published. To pay for his own research and compensate for the meager income he received as a teacher, Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo was forced to gradually sell the assets he had inherited from his parents. He married Norwegian scholar Lucie Kyn Rynning (1887-1957), whom he met while training in electrochemistry at Columbia University, New York.
The prolific man of science was recognized with the medal of the Congress of the Republic and decorated by the governments of France and Italy . His brave and innovative ideas made him the object of political persecution under the authoritarian regimes of Leguía and Odría. His main works are:The genesis of the electrical services of Lima (1929), A new key to the crossroads of physics (1942), Cosmic energies and the enigma of life (1950), The divinity of the Chavín and Tiahuanaco cultures (1966). His dedication to the natural resources of the country has been continued to a great extent by his son Santiago Erik Antúnez de Mayolo, honorary president of the Lima Geographical Society.