Fernández-Morán founded the Venezuelan Institute for Neurological and Brain Studies, the predecessor of the current
Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC). He studied medicine at the
University of Munich, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1944. He contributed to the development of the
electron microscope and was the first person to use the concept of cryo-ultramicrotomy. After flying over
Angel Falls in his home country of
Venezuela he was inspired by the concept of the smoothly reoccurring flow system inherent in a waterfall, to take his diamond knife invention and combine it with an
ultramicrotome to dramatically improve the ultra-thin sectioning of electron microscopy samples. The ultramictrotome advances the rotating, drum-mounted specimen sample in such small increments (utilizing the very low thermal expansion coefficient of
Invar) past the stationary diamond knife that sectioning thicknesses of several Angstrom units are possible. He also helped to advance the field of electron cryomicroscopy - the use of
superconductive electromagnetic lenses cooled with liquid helium in electron microscopes to achieve the highest resolution possible - among many other research topics. Fernández-Morán was commissioned in 1957 with the supervision of the first Venezuelan research nuclear reactor, the
RV-1 nuclear reactor, one of the first in Latin America. He was appointed Minister of Education during the last year of the regime of
Marcos Pérez Jiménez. He was forced to leave
Venezuela when the dictatorship was overthrown in 1958. He worked with
NASA for the
Apollo Project and taught in many universities, such as
MIT,
University of Chicago and the
Stockholm University. In 1986, he donated a collection of his papers to the National Library of Medicine. ==Personal life==