Manuel Peimbert wife, fellow UNAM faculty member Silvia Torres, were the first non-US scientists to win the Hans Bethe Prize. Peimbert was elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society in 2002. Peimbert is the great-grandson of writer Justo Sierra. Manuel Peimbert Manuel Peimbert Sierra (born June 9, 1941) is a Mexican astronomer and a faculty member at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). After earning an undergraduate physics degree from UNAM, Peimbert completed a doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley before returning to UNAM as a faculty member. He works at the UNAM Institute of Astronomy. Peimbert was
Mexicans in 1936), were established during the first half of the 20th century. Most of the new research institutes were created within UNAM. Twelve institutes were integrated into UNAM from 1929 to 1973. In 1959, the Mexican Academy of Sciences was created to coordinate scientific efforts between academics. In 1995 the Mexican chemist Mario J. Molina shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Paul J. Crutzen and F. Sherwood Rowland for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone. Molina, an alumnus of UNAM, became the first Mexican citizen to win the Nobel Prize in science.