The Latin American sleep medicine and research community received with great sadness the
news of Ricardo Velluti’s death, who passed away on June 18th, 2022. Dr.
Velluti was a prominent Uruguayan neuroscientist and a pioneer in the study of sleep in
Uruguay and Latin America. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad
de la República - Montevideo, serving as a professor in the Department of
Physiology since 1985. From this department he published most of his seminal works on
the interplay between the sleep-wake cycle and sensory neurophysiology, mostly auditory
system. Later in life, he became an Honorary Professor at the University Latin American
Center for Human Economics (CLAEH) in Punta del Este, Uruguay, where he continued
working on sleep neurobiology.Dr. Velluti began working with sleep research on the decades of 1960 to 1980, a time in
which sleep research was more related to basic physiology than to medical practice.
Early in his scientific career, he become interested in two topics related to
neurophysiology, which were initially conducted as parallel research lines. The first
was related to sleep neurobiology, especially focused on brain pO2 control
during sleep and wakefulness[1]-[4], while the
second was devoted to auditory neurophysiology[5]-[7]. Eventually,
he merged both topics into a single one and this combination brought a deep insight into
the mechanisms of information processing during the different stages of the sleep-wake
cycle[8]-[13].He kept working on until recently and his works contributed greatly to the development of
basic research on the effects of sleep on sensory processing, providing important
clinical insights to the field. The research carried out in Velluti’s laboratory
concerned the influence of acoustic stimulation on sleep behavior and the mechanisms of
neuronal processing of acoustic information along the complex auditory pathways of the
central nervous system during the wake-sleep cycle.Altogether, Dr. Velluti published more than 70 articles. We have had the opportunity to
publish a couple of them at Sleep Science, with highlights to a
brilliant review about the participation of neurophysiological sensory functions in
active sleep processes[14]-[16]. He was the editor and author of two
fundamental books: The Auditory System in Sleep[ and The Physiologic Nature of
Sleep[, together
with another forefather of sleep medicine research, Dr. Pier Luigi Parmeggiani.Along all these studies and publications, Dr. Velluti has worked with many other renowned
Uruguayan sleep researchers, including Dr. Jaime Monti, Dr. José Luis
Peña, Dr. Pablo Torterolo, and Dr. Marisa Pedemonte, being also responsible for
training several researchers in the area. With Marisa the relationship went beyond work,
and we can surely say they were the most lovely couple in Latin American sleep research.
They married, had children, become lifelong partners and lived more than 35 years
together.Dr. Velluti also played a significant role in the management of science in his home
country, participating as a member of the Comisión Nacional de
Investigación Ciencia y Tecnología (CONICET), being the
founder of the first Sociedad Uruguaya de Investigación en
Sueño.We have had the pleasure to spent nice moments with Dr. Velluti, in congresses and
meetings across Latin America and beyond. In 2018, we were pleased to share the offering
of the “Velluti Prize” for basic research and the “Tufik Prize” for clinical research at
the Congress of the Latin American Federation of Sleep Societies (FLASS) in Punta del
Este, Uruguay.The sleep research community will miss this exceptional researcher. Ricardo Velluti was a
brilliant scientist and stood out with excellence in our continent. His work has placed
him at the forefront of the approach of auditory processing during sleep and
wakefulness. We are sure his legacy will continue and his works will remain inspiring
generations of Latin American researchers.