Leading academics, scientists and historians of Cuban science met this Friday at the headquarters of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, in Old Havana, in a session in which the 60th anniversary of the institution was commemorated, milestones that marked its history, its innovative projections and the imprint of its first president (1962-1972), Antonio Núñez Jiménez.
Doctor of Medical Sciences Luis Velázquez Pérez, president of the ACC, highlighted that the new Academy of Sciences of Cuba, founded in 1962, was the first multidisciplinary scientific institution in the country.
It had been preceded by the Royal Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of Havana (1861), then the Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of Havana during the Republic.
“Núñez Jiménez had the wisdom to create an institution for the entire country. It was what was sowing the revolutionary process, justice and social inclusion throughout the nation,” said Velázquez Pérez.
“The new Cuban Academy of Sciences has gone through several stages and we have tried to carry forward the continuity of the thought that gave rise to it and encouraged its first years. It is necessary to go to that great ocean that is history to transcend what others conceived”, he affirmed.
The new Academy of Sciences of Cuba was founded in a context of intense cultural, educational and scientific work in the country: schools were created in cities and countryside, universities; new teachers and scientists were being trained; the University Reform had entered into force and the Literacy Campaign had been carried out.
The National Commission of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, the name it took in the law that gave rise to it, initially had 10 members (four from natural sciences, four from social sciences, one from technical sciences and one from medicine). ). Others would join later.
Núñez associated the project with valuable members of the intelligentsia that remained in the country, as can be seen in the composition of the National Commission. Also, to create and direct research institutes that will lead scientific development in different sectors.
The founding document (Law 1011/1962) established the need to concentrate the available resources in an institution where the various branches, both natural and social, were represented. Its national scope was also defined and, as a function, the creation of its own scientific organizations.
Among the first institutes created from the institution, for whose headquarters the National Capitol was chosen, would be those of Geography and Geology, History, Biology and Ethnology and Folklore, all in 1962, as well as the Department of Anthropology (later the Institute of Archeology); the Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy (1963) and the Department of Meteorology and Astronomy (1964); the Sugar Cane, Oceanology and Soil Research Institutes (1964); Literature and Linguistics and Meteorology (1965), and Nuclear Physics (1969) and Astronomy (1970).
Also, the Felipe Poey Natural History Museum (with antecedents in the Museum of the Speleological Society, closed in the fifties), opened in 1964 in the halls of the National Capitol, in whose spaces more than 3,800 pieces of art were exhibited. the most diverse fields.
It included a planetarium and a scale reproduction of Cave No. 1 in Punta del Este.
Along with the emergence of a network of institutes, a mass of researchers dedicated full time to science was developing, recalled one of the participants in the session. The role of the new ACC in launching scientific research, anchored in the country’s problems and challenges, was fundamental.
In 1972, the Academy had 3,524 workers, half of them graduates or technicians. Since its foundation, assistance and advice had been received from 1,032 foreign technicians.
In its structure there were six scientific sections, 23 institutes, four departments and six working groups, four museums, five nature reserves, two botanical gardens, 62 meteorological stations, two planetariums, six sugarcane research stations, a central library (the one of the Congress, in the Capitol) and 40 specialized libraries.
Today it has subsidiaries in several regions of the country. Its president said that new academics have been incorporated and “we are creating the status of associate scientist, people who
Durante el encuentro de este viernes en la sede de la institución, en La Habana Vieja, Liliana Núñez Veliz, presidenta de la Fundación Antonio Núñez Jiménez de la Naturaleza y el Hombre, recordó que se está celebrando un programa por el centenario del reconocido científico, geógrafo, arqueólogo y espeleólogo cubano, que se cumple el 20 de abril de 2023.
Destacó, además, las posibilidades de colaboración entre la Fundación y la ACC.
“En una entrevista poco antes de su muerte, Núñez Jiménez dijo que la geografía era lo que había dado sustento a todas las demás facetas de su vida y a la proyección que él dio a su vida como político, revolucionario, ciudadano…
“La geografía era, para él, la base de toda su vida. Y todo lo que hacemos en la Fundación y los distintos programas de trabajo siempre buscan valorar la geografía dentro de la sociedad cubana, su importancia, el papel de los geógrafos cubanos dentro de la economía, la sociedad, y el aporte que pueden dar para un desarrollo sostenible.
“Es el aporte que queremos traer a la Academia, sin poner fuera de nivel ninguna otra disciplina, sino, por el contrario, para que la Academia sirva de soporte equilibrado de todas las ciencias, que es su impronta más importante, su capacidad para fundar desde el equilibrio, crear instituciones con una incidencia desde todos los sectores: la física, la geografía, la historia, la sociedad, los suelos, la meteorología…”, afirmó.
En varias intervenciones, historiadores de la ciencia cubana destacaron, entre otras características de la nueva Academia fundada en 1962, la combinación del trabajo de campo con el trabajo de gabinete (en sus viajes oficiales a otros países, Núñez Jiménez aprovechaba para realizar exploraciones geográficas), la unión entre la ciencia y la cultura, y la vocación de acercar las ciencias naturales y las sociales en función de las nuevas realidades y necesidades del país.
También ofrecieron sus testimonios sobre Núñez Jiménez el geógrafo y espeleólogo Ángel Graña González, quien trabajó por años junto al fundador de la Sociedad Espeleológica de Cuba, y el ingeniero y doctor en Ciencias José Boris Altshuler, uno de los 10 miembros originales de la Comisión Nacional de la Academia de Ciencias de Cuba.
El doctor en Ciencias Geológicas Manuel Iturralde Vinent destacó la vocación educativa e inclusiva de la nueva Academia de Ciencias Cubana.
“Éramos muchachos que empezábamos en las exploraciones, y a partir de ahí comenzamos a formar parte de la Academia, porque veníamos a ver exposiciones y exhibiciones, las colecciones. Participábamos como observadores… Íbamos allí, a los institutos, a recibir cursos y explicaciones. Nos ayudaban en los trabajos de campo, con recursos. Se unían a nosotros.
“En la Academia entraron aficionados a la ciencia, fueron a trabajar allí. Núñez, antes de ser científico, también andaba explorando, era un aficionado a la ciencia. Él entendió que esa era una verdadera cantera.
“En la Academia, desde el principio, los aficionados a las ciencias fueron ejes fundamentales. Hubo también científicos aficionados. Eso se logró porque se les abrieron las puertas, fueron recibidos como iguales por los que ya estaban instalados. Y esa fue una visión de Núñez”.
(By: Deny Extremera San Martin/Cubadebate)