Nibaldo Bahamonde Navarro
A teacher from Chiloé considered the founder of marine science research in Chile. Molluscs, crustaceans, fish and even a frog carry his surname.
Jisa39 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
There is a frog from southern Chile called Batrachyla nibaldoi. There is a lobster, Projasus bahamondei. There is a beaked whale — one of the most elusive in the ocean — called Mesoplodon bahamondi. And there is a shrimp, Metacrangon bahamondei.
In taxonomy, dedicating a species to someone is a recognition given by colleagues, not institutions, and it cannot be lobbied for. Four surnames across four different branches of the tree of life say something about Nibaldo Bahamonde that no curriculum vitae manages to say.
A state-certified teacher who ended up founding a discipline
He was born in Ancud, on the Isla Grande de Chiloé, on 20 April 1924. In 1940 he enrolled at the Instituto Superior de Humanidades of the Faculty of Philosophy and Education of the Universidad de Chile, and in 1943 at the Instituto Pedagógico of that same faculty. He graduated as a Profesor de Estado (a state-certified teacher) in Biological and Chemical Sciences in 1946.
He did not train as a researcher: he trained as a teacher. The Universidad de Chile today describes him as a hydrobiologist, a specialist in crustaceans, and the initiator of scientific research in the field of marine sciences in Chile.
Born in Ancud
On 20 April, in Chiloé.
Instituto Superior de Humanidades
Faculty of Philosophy and Education, Universidad de Chile.
Instituto Pedagógico
Profesor de Estado in Biological and Chemical Sciences
Museo Nacional de Historia Natural
He takes charge of the Hydrobiology Section, which he would head for 32 years. He was also deputy director of the museum.
Knight of the Order of Vasa
Awarded by the Swedish Crown.
Postgraduate studies in Scandinavia
Denmark, Sweden and Norway, on a scholarship from the United Nations technical assistance programme (FAO).
Marine Biology degree programme
Lecturer on the programme at the Universidad de Chile.
Full Professor of the Faculty of Sciences
Full Member of the Academia Chilena de Ciencias
Premio Nacional de Ciencias (Chile's national prize for science)
Emeritus Professor of the Universidad de Chile
Thirty-two years in the Hydrobiology Section
Between 1950 and 1982 he was head of the Hydrobiology Section of the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, where he also served as deputy director. His studies covered the bionomics of macrobenthic species — what lives on and within the seabed — and the population dynamics of species of commercial fishing interest.
In 1955 he obtained a scholarship from the United Nations technical assistance programme, through the FAO, to pursue postgraduate studies in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Five years earlier, the Swedish Crown had already made him a Knight of the Order of Vasa.
Four species that bear his name
Batrachyla nibaldoi
A frog from the temperate forests of southern Chile. It is the only one of the four named after his first name rather than his surname.
Projasus bahamondei
From the group that was his speciality: crustaceans, the subject he started out studying.
Mesoplodon bahamondi
A beaked whale, among the hardest species to observe in the ocean.
Metacrangon bahamondei
A shrimp. The dedications came from both Chilean and foreign colleagues.
What the sources do not quite settle
He was born on 20 April 1924 in Ancud and headed the Hydrobiology Section of the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural between 1950 and 1982.
The date matches across Wikipedia, Wikidata and the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural itself; the Universidad de Chile records only the year. The years at the museum agree across all sources.
Whether he is still alive. This page records no date of death because we found none.
Memoria Chilena leaves his authority record open ('Bahamonde, Nibaldo, 1924-'). A tribute published in 2024 in the Revista de Biología Marina y Oceanografía, for his centenary, speaks of him in the present tense and mentions conversations held with him. We found no later record. We would rather say this than assume.
The exact name of his 1996 Premio Nacional.
The Universidad de Chile calls it "Premio Nacional de Ciencias Naturales"; the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural and Wikipedia simply call it "Premio Nacional de Ciencias". This page uses the short form, which is the one that matches two of the three sources.
- Universidad de Chile. Perfil oficial de Premios Nacionales
View source → - Museo Nacional de Historia Natural. Veinte años del Premio Nacional de Ciencias a Nibaldo Bahamonde (2016)
View source → - Revista de Biología Marina y Oceanografía (2024). Homenaje en su centenario
View source → - Memoria Chilena · Biblioteca Nacional de Chile. Ficha de autoridad bibliográfica: «Bahamonde, Nibaldo, 1924-»
View source →
How to cite
This is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0, as long as you give credit.
FísicaEterna. (2026). Nibaldo Bahamonde Navarro — biography, FísicaEterna. Retrieved [access date] from https://www.fisicaeterna.cl/en/biographies/nibaldo-bahamonde
@misc{fisicaeterna_nibaldo_bahamonde,
author = {FísicaEterna},
title = {Nibaldo Bahamonde Navarro — biography, FísicaEterna},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.fisicaeterna.cl/en/biographies/nibaldo-bahamonde},
note = {CC BY 4.0}
}