The Construction of International Scientific Networks: The Rockefeller Foundation and the Training of Brazilian Researchers in the 20th Century

ABSTRACT

This article examines the influence of the Rockefeller Foundation on Brazilian medicine and public health in the early twentieth century, investigating the impact that its scholarships had on initiatives to strengthen international academic networks and train researchers. The study analyzes a group of physicians and nurses awarded scholarships between 1917 and 1950, with special emphasis on the late 1910s to 1930s given that scholarship recipients during that period had greater ties to institutions in the Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo region. This paper draws on data from the Directory of Fellowship Awards for the Years 1917–1950, published in 1951, and from The Johns Hopkins University Circular: School of Hygiene and Public Health, Catalogue and Announcement, published from 1916 to 1931. It draws out the connection between collective associations and specific competencies and concludes that the networks formed were based on specific characteristics that facilitated the circulation of prominent Brazilian scientists.

Keywords:
Rockefeller Foundation; Scientific Networks; Public Health; Internationalization of Science; History of Medicine