Hilario Fernández Long

Who was Hilario Fernández Long?

Hilario Fernández Long was an Argentine structural engineer and educator.

He was born in Bahía Blanca and was of Spanish and Volga German descent. He graduated as a Civil Engineer from the University of Buenos Aires in 1941 and his professional life was centered on structural engineering. He participated in, among other projects, the construction of the Argentine National Library, the Buenos Aires IBM Building and the Zárate–Brazo Largo and Chaco-Corrientes bridges. He pioneered the use of computer tools in his discipline.

He coauthored many technical articles, and published an Introduction to Go and a Go Manual that were instrumentals in the introduction of the game in Argentina.

Besides his teaching activities in several universities, he was the dean of the Engineering School and Rector of the University of Buenos Aires. After Juan Carlos Onganía's coup d'état in 1966, he resigned as the University autonomy was violated in the Noche de los Bastones Largos when the police entered by force in the campuses, beating students and professors, effectively ending the so-called "Golden Age" of the Buenos Aires University. His political commitment was reaffirmed when President Raúl Alfonsín nominated him as a member of the CONADEP commission that investigated the fate of the desaparecidos.