Physics Today’s Toni Feder recently traveled to Cuba to learn about the country’s physics community and how it has been affected by the further relaxation of US–Cuba relations. She produced a series of blog posts about her experiences. You can read Toni’s previous post here.
Thursday, 15 December 2016
My final three and a half days in Cuba turned out, happily, to be filled with a flurry of interesting appointments. Early Monday morning I went to the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) in Havana to meet with Carlos Cabal. That appointment was the only one that the Ministry of External Relations (MINREX) arranged for me, despite my being told that “they” would put together my itinerary.
Cabal is a physicist from Santiago de Cuba who works with nuclear magnetic resonance. He was a professor at the University of the Orient in Santiago and had started a magnet lab. He and his students and colleagues built MRI equipment from scratch, a skill he had learned as a student in the Soviet Union.
Around 2006 Cabal got a call from Fidel Castro, who asked him to come to Havana. Castro wanted his help planning and realizing 35 high-tech medical centers in Venezuela. The centers would have computed tomography, MRI, ultrasound, x-ray, mammography, and other capabilities. Cabal designed the centers and prepared doctors to work in them. After the job was done, he and his wife stayed in Havana.
I spoke with many researchers at the Institute of Cybernetics, Mathematics, and Physics (ICIMAF) in Havana. Physicist Aurora Pérez Martínez’s father founded the institute’s physics department, and her son also works there. (Throughout my visit I met quite a few families with multiple generations of physicists.) Pérez Martínez tried to arrange for me to visit the Institute for Meteorology, which is located in the Casablanca neighborhood across the water with a view of Old Havana. I had been trying the whole time I was in Cuba to get an appointment there. With Pérez Martínez’s help, I got close—but no cigar. The approval I needed from MINREX would take two days, which I no longer had.
I visited a couple of state centers that encompass research, development, product commercialization, and services. That combination enables the researchers to enjoy better working and living conditions. At the Center for Technological Applications and Nuclear Development, people in basic research work on string theory, the ALICE experiment at CERN, medical R&D, and more. Among other services, the center provides safety certification of equipment at amusement parks. At least some of the profits from such services go back to the center and are used to pay for equipment and to supplement salaries.
My final stop, on the way to the airport, was the Center of Molecular Immunology. I spoke with Karina García, who works on mathematical modeling of molecules and their interactions with the immune system. Others at the center design and synthesize molecules, perform clinical tests, and scale up products for commercialization.
I witnessed what I had been told by many university researchers: The biotech sector is a priority in Cuba. The researchers have modern equipment, faster internet connections, and better journal access. The Cuban government allows for some collaborations with US scientists and sometimes pays for travel. The state centers, which are scattered around Havana, provide transportation to workers.
One evening I visited Cabal and his wife, Nora, who is an actor and theater professor. The discussion ranged from the professional and personal to the political. A photo of Fidel Castro hung on the wall. They offered me caviar from Carlos’s recent trip to Russia.
On my last evening in Cuba I stayed late into the night at the home of Alejandro Cabo, a theoretical physicist at ICIMAF. His wife, Milagros Bizet Franco, is a retired electrical engineer. Their daughter, Nana Geraldine Cabo Bizet, is a string theorist, as is their son, who works in Argentina. Milagros’s mother, Zoriada Franco Ramos, who is in her 90s, also lives with the family. She has a doctorate in pedagogy from the University of Havana. The evening was a happy coincidence: The invitation came when I accidentally dialed their number instead of Pérez Martínez’s. The visits with the families of Cabal and Cabo were special highlights for me.
Nearly everyone I spoke with during this trip has expressed a strong sense of pride about Cuba and a desire to give back to the country. The people I met were welcoming about the US—they want improved relations, which they believe will be beneficial to both countries. But they also don’t want to lose the good things that Cuba has built up, like the free and excellent health care and education systems.
Soon after I arrived at the airport, the power in the entire terminal went out, and I wondered if my visit would be extended. But the power came back on, and I eventually got through passport control and headed for the boarding area. No gate information ever appeared on the lighted signs, but I and the other passengers figured out where to go, and eventually we boarded and took off. A short time later, when the plane landed in Miami, many passengers applauded.
