A few years later, Salvarezza already had a teaching position in General Inorganic Chemistry, which was, with hindsight, the beginning of his specialization in physical chemistry. His commitment to science alternated with an increasingly intense political activity within a highly politicized university. "At that time, studying and political activism in university were not mutually exclusive. In fact, for many of us they were inseparable. I approached the Juventud Peronista —the youth branch of the political party founded by Juan Domingo Perón— became a member of the Student Center and participated in many activities. After Perón died, there came a stage of persecution and violence that forced many of us to leave political activity," recalls Salvarezza.

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During those years, science won over politics mainly as a matter of survival, since in 1976 the bloodiest dictatorship had taken power in Argentina. In 1977, Salvarezza, who had recently graduated as a biochemist, avoided exile unlike other colleagues. In fact, he scaled down to survive: "I had to leave the University of Buenos Aires because it had become very dangerous since they started informing against those involved in political activities in the workplace. They offered me a job as technician in a physical chemistry institute in the city of La Plata, INIFTA, and I went there," he recalls.

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That safe passage would guide the course of his later career.

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Two Exiles

At INIFTA, Salvarezza started working on a project on microbiological corrosion caused by fungi in aircraft aluminum tanks, a line of research that would become his doctoral thesis in Biochemistry in 1981. That was a year after the birth of his first child, Nicolás. The project also marked the beginning of a pattern in his work: the search for practical applications of scientific knowledge and the transfer of technology to the industry.

While the return of democracy in 1983 was a relief for a badly battered country, Salvarezza's work routine was not easy in the early 1980s. He lived in an apartment in the city of Buenos Aires and had to commute for more than two hours to get to La Plata and then back. His salary was low as a researcher—he had managed to enter the career of CONICET in 1982—and it was barely enough for a family which had just welcomed newborn twins.
The search for a chance to emigrate resulted in a scholarship for post-doctoral studies in the Department of Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics at the Autonomous University of Madrid, which was an opportunity to specialize in scanning tunneling microscopy. "I had to relearn everything. From biology I had moved to chemistry and, when I arrived in Madrid, I had to dialogue with physicists," he recalls.

Thus, the Salvarezza family moved to Madrid, where they lived from 1988 to 1992. "I was fine, I worked in research and began teaching, but I did not have a permanent position and I always thought about coming back, even though my wife did not agree and my children had adapted fairly well. We finally returned, but I have kept very close contact with Spanish researchers," he states.

The return came with a promotion in his career at CONICET (where he became an independent researcher) and the possibility of carrying out the first project for scanning tunneling microscopy in Argentina. "They provided me with support to buy the equipment and I put together a group of three people at INIFTA. It was a cutting-edge research line and even today it is still very important, since it allows us to see the atoms and molecules on the surface," he says. In 1996, Salvarezza obtained funding to buy a new scanning tunneling microscope and an atomic force microscope with which he created the Nanoscopy Laboratory at INIFTA. The group led by Salvarezza was a pioneer in Latin America, with more than 200 published works in the field.