The Argentinian Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation awards the prize on an annual basis. It is bestowed upon researchers who make a major contribution to the development of Argentina’s scientific and technological capacities, thus recognizing and giving greater visibility to the recipients’ contributions to the Argentinian scientific and research landscape and promoting international cooperation.

Stefan Rinke is professor of Latin American history and director of the Institute for Latin American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. From 2014 to 2017 he was the president of AHILA, the association of European historians of Latin America. In 2017 he was awarded the José Antonio Alzate Prize by the Academia Mexicana de Ciencias (Mexican Academy of Sciences) and CONACYT (National Council of Humanities, Science, and Technology in Mexico) and received an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina. He has published almost sixty books and over 300 articles on the history of Latin America, from the colonial era to the present day. For over twenty-five years Professor Rinke has been cooperating intensively with colleagues from Argentina in numerous projects to strengthen research and teaching between the two countries, has hosted prestigious Argentinian academics (including three recipients of the Humboldt Research Award), and supported countless early-career researchers from the country. He has also been responsible for establishing several academic exchange agreements between Berlin and Argentina.