Beatriz Cougnet was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, but her parents, Fausto and Susana, were both Argentine citizens so she was raised in Argentina since the age of one. She studied physics and mathematics at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and obtained her M.Sc. degree on 18 December 1952. When the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission was created, Cougnet was one of the first four researchers hired to work on high-energy fundamental particle physics.