Ernesto Sabato (June 24, 1911– April 30, 2011) was an Argentine writer, painter and physicist. He won some of the most important prizes for writing in Spanish and was influential in the literary world of Latin America. He was also famous for investigating war crimes in Argentina. Sabato was a member of the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons. This tried to find out what had happened to the 30,000 people who went missing during time of military rule from 1976 to 1983.