  In this paper we consider Montevideo's liberal progressive atmosphere towards
the end of the nineteenth century and, within it, the trajectory of young
science student Enrique Loedel Palumbo. We discuss some of his activities in
Argentina, where he moved to study Physics at a new and well-equipped Physics
Institute at the National University of La Plata, where he would later become a
leading figure. Initially Loedel Palumbo worked on the structure of complex
molecules based on their magnetic, electric and optical properties. Later, when
Einstein visited Argentina in 1925, he had chance to exchange ideas, which led
to the publication of the first of a series of papers on the Theory of
Relativity in some of Germany's leading scientific journals. Loedel Palumbo
integrated fully with the intellectual life of his adopted country, becoming
one of Argentina's top physicists and philosophers of science of his day. He is
a valuable example of the deep intertwining of the intellectual life of Uruguay
and Argentina in the first-half of the twentieth century. Like his Argentine
colleagues, he also experienced the consequences of living through a complex
historical period.
