HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 18 (ACN) The Carlos J. Finlay Barre 2021 Order, the Cuban government’s highest distinction to nationals and foreigners for their contributions to the development of science for the benefit of mankind, will be awarded today in Havana.
A group of 56 personalities, centers, institutions and organizations of the central administration of the State will receive it in a ceremony to be held at the Havana Convention Center, announced PhD in Science Andrea Armas Rodriguez, head of the General Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation of CITMA.
Speaking exclusively to the Cuban News Agency, she commented that of the 115 proposals presented, 50 prestigious researchers, and three Cuban institutions and as many foreign experts with valuable scientific and technological results, linked to the work of the Central Administration of the State, deserved it.
The Carlos J. Finlay Barre Order is the highest distinction granted in 2021 by Presidential Decree 351, at the request of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA), as the governing body of scientific activity.
It was established on January 21, 1928, by Decree 77 of President Gerardo Machado to encourage scientists, physicists and officials (national and foreign) for exceptional merits in the public health and social welfare field.
After the triumph of the Revolution in 1959, on the initiative of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro in 1981, it was reinstated with a new design to encourage “comrades and groups in recognition of their extensive scientific, research and teaching activity, whose results contribute in an outstanding way to the prestige and development of science in our country”.
Carlos Juan Finlay de Barres (1833-1915) was a distinguished Cuban scientist and in 1881 he presented his thesis on the female Aedes Aegypti mosquito as a transmitter of yellow fever and developed an antivector plan to eradicate the disease.
Due to the transcendence of his discovery, in 1975 UNESCO included him among the six most outstanding microbiologists in history and in 1981 awarded for the first time the International Prize that bears his name, in order to recognize advances in Microbiology.
