Abstract
The present paper aims to reconstruct the main stages of the above-mentioned process from the Cuban Revolution (1959) to the present time. A general premise is necessary on the documentary sources used and the method adopted in this research. The written documents available on the development of physics in Cuba related to the early two decades are quite scarce, so that the reconstruction presented here is based mainly on oral history research. Most of the information presented in this study is sourced from interviews with Cuban colleagues who played leading roles in the events described here. This approach obviously implies drawbacks since the information obtained relies on the personal memories and views of the interviewees, and in some cases uncertain or controversial aspects arise. Despite this drawback, every effort has been made to verify the information.
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Notes
- 1.
See the contribution to this volume by Baracca and Altshuler. A report by the ad hoc Truslow Commission of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which had travelled to Cuba to study the provision of loans, stated unequivocally in 1950 that “in the field of applied research and labs, there was no development at all in Cuba” (Sáenz and García-Capote 1989; Clark Arxer 2010, 123).
- 2.
For evidence, see the remainder of this paper and Part III of this volume.
- 3.
Argentina, for instance, has a long history in physics starting at La Plata University in 1909 when Emil Bose arrived. Up until the 1950s, this university was the foremost center for the study of physics in Argentina. In the fifties, the University of Buenos Aires and the University of Cordoba created physics departments. At about the same time, the Atomic Energy commission laboratories at Bariloche and in Buenos Aires were established. The physics department of the Universidad de Buenos Aires as a whole has a very broad spectrum of activities which essentially cover all areas of physics. Its biggest deficiency is the relative lack of experimental programs. This is a result of the historical lack of funds available for the purchase of equipment.
In a recent study, Hurtado De Mendoza and Vara (2007) underline some features that may help in appreciating differences in the Cuban case (apart from the most developed countries): “… some developing countries decided to invest a significant part of their rather modest science budgets in building many-million-dollar facilities. A comparative approach to the study of the first stages of the Argentine TANDAR heavy ion accelerator and the Brazilian National Laboratory Synchrotron Light (LNLS) projects may help to understand specificities in patterns of organization of big science in peripheral contexts. Oversimplification of the decision-making processes linked to authoritarian political contexts—which allowed to overcome the lack of consensus within the physics community as well as financial uncertainties—seem to have been a necessary condition for TANDAR and LNLS, which differentiated them from big science in developed countries.”
- 4.
“Zafra” is the Latin American term for sugar harvest. The term “Zafra of 1970” refers to the target of reaching the record sugar production of 10 million metric tons during the 1969–1970 Zafra. This target was not reached: the Cuban economy was severely affected and this led to important changes in economic policies, with a progressive approach toward the Soviet model.
- 5.
- 6.
This is analyzed in detail in the chapter by Josè Altshuler and Baracca in this volume.
- 7.
José Antonio Echeverría Bianchi (1932–1937), a student of architecture, president of the University Students Federation (FEU) and of the Directorio Revolucionario, was a leader of the student fight against the tyranny of Fulgencio Batista. He led the actions of March 13, 1957, which included the attack on the presidential palace in Havana. He died the same day in a clash with the police near the walls of the University of Havana. Cf. Sect. 6.6.3 of the chapter by Altshuler and Baracca in this volume.
- 8.
The first academy was established in Cuba in 1861 as a scientific society under the name Real Academia de Ciencias Médicas, Físicas y Naturales de La Habana (cf. the chapter by Altshuler and Baracca in this volume). With the independence of the country in 1902, the academy lost the appellative Real. In 1962, the Academy of Science was re-established with a national character and with the task of developing research centers.
- 9.
See the chapter by Jacqueline Cernogora in this volume.
- 10.
See the chapter by Leccabue in this volume.
- 11.
For more on the choice of the research field, see Sect. 6.3.2.1.
- 12.
The General Declaration of the Congress was published in various languages, among these in the Journal “Vida Universitaria”: Vida Universitaria (1968).
- 13.
Other socialist countries chose to pursue all fields, thereby overstretching their capacities.
- 14.
This is also discussed in most of the contributions by Cuban physicists in the second part of this volume.
- 15.
The pre-revolution university has been analyzed in the chapter by Altshuler and Baracca in this volume.
- 16.
The interview with Melquíades de Dios Leyva in this volume is particularly eloquent on the importance of the unprecedented opportunities provided to the lower classes.
- 17.
Francis Weston Sears and Mark W. Zemansky wrote a widely disseminated textbook on physics, which had innumerable editions and translations: the Spanish translation was reprinted in Cuba in the 1960s.
- 18.
Marcelo Alonso, who authored or coauthored several widely used physics textbooks (Alonso 1958), was one of the Cuban physicists best known in the West. In his later years, he visited Cuba twice. His impressions on Cuban physics can be found in an article he wrote for APS News, which is reproduced in this volume.
- 19.
See the interview with Hugo Pérez Rojas in this volume.
- 20.
On the figure and the role of Manuel Gran before the Revolution, see the chapter by José Altshuler and Angelo Baracca in this volume.
- 21.
For the history of the Physics School at this early stage, here and in the next paragraphs, see also the interview with Hugo Pérez Rojas in this volume.
- 22.
The Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia is an educational and research institution founded in 1960 and located in Moscow, which is ranked by the Ministry of Education of Russia as the country’s third-best university after Moscow State University (see below) and Saint Petersburg State University. Its stated objective at the time was to help nations of the Third World, mainly in Asia, Africa and South America, by providing higher education and professional training; many students from developed countries also attended. The Lomonosov Moscow State University is the oldest and largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it was renamed in 1940 in honor of its founder, Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765), a polymath and writer of Imperial Russia.
- 23.
Some general political background information here will situate and interpret foreign initiatives and collaborations with Cuba, as well as Cuban development. The Cuban Revolution obviously attracted worldwide attention and a deep interest in the leftwing milieus (although with contrasting evaluations, due to the unorthodox origin and development of the Revolution). In France, there was quite an authoritative group of leftwing scientists in the French Communist Party, who organized strong coordinated actions, in particular in support of the efforts of the Cuban scientists, especially physicists, to promote the technical scientific development of the country. Probably the most influential among the French physicists was Jean-Pierre Vigier (1920–2004). An active supporter of communism throughout his life, Vigier was a proponent of the stochastic interpretation of quantum mechanics, after the ideas of de Broglie and David Bohm. Vigier was invited to be Einstein’s assistant, but because of political controversy concerning the Vietnam War, the US State Department refused to issue him with a visa). Vigier was probably the driving force behind the organization of French scientists in the summer schools in Cuba (see Cernogora’s recollections in this volume). In Italy, too, the interest of scientists toward the Cuban events was strong: the first case was that of Andrea Levialdi, described in the present chapter. In the summer schools, Italian physicists organized courses of teaching: among the leading lights were Bruno Preziosi and Bruno Vitale. Throughout the 1960s and at the beginning of the 1970s, international interest was revived by the war in Vietnam.
- 24.
- 25.
See Veltfort (1998), reprinted in this volume.
- 26.
Cf. the interview with Hugo Pérez Rojas in this volume.
- 27.
See also Vigil’s article in this volume.
- 28.
Cf. Altshuler and Baracca’s chapter in this volume.
- 29.
The Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ioffe Institute) is one of Russia’s largest research centers specialized in physics and technology. The institute was established in 1918 in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) and was run for several decades by Abraham Fedorovich Ioffe (1880–1960) who was a prominent Russian/Soviet physicist, expert in electromagnetism, radiology, crystals, high-impact physics, thermoelectricity and photoelectricity.
- 30.
The collaboration between the Cuban institutions and the Soviet Academy of Science was coordinated at a governmental level by the academies. In the beginning, it was difficult for the Cuban universities to participate in the collaboration with institutes of the Soviet academy, since the ACC prioritized the participation from the centers pertaining to the ACC itself.
- 31.
Before 1959, a truly chaotic situation existed in Cuba in what concerns units of measurement. There was an arbitrary mix of units of Spanish, English and Cuban origin. It was usual to use these in trade: for units of weight pounds, arrobas and quintals; for units of length in the textile trade varas (Spanish or Cuban) and yards; for areas and ground measurements caballerías and cordeles, while the architects used meters and distances were expressed in kilometers. This situation caused many problems in exports, with the differentiation of markets. For instance, in sugar production/export, one had to specify if one was dealing with “a ton” (2,000 lb) or “a metric ton” (1,000 kg). The lack of a suitable means for the country to verify its own instruments of measurement also led to commercial losses. On the other hand, the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries had adopted the international system of units, and the rapid development of trade with them created pressure to do the same in Cuba. It is probable that the creation of the Ministry of Industry under Ernesto Guevara was key in this matter.
- 32.
More information is given in the following, though this is dealt with in detail by Cabal and Méndez Pérez in this volume.
- 33.
The Technische Universität Dresden is the largest institute of higher education in Dresden, one of the oldest colleges of technology and oldest universities in Germany. In 1961, it was given its present name, the Dresden University of Technology.
- 34.
Cf. the interview with Hugo Pérez Rojas, the second director of the Physics School, in this volume.
- 35.
The schedule of classes was very intense with more than 30 h per week of classes and compulsory attendance. These schedules were meant for students who did not work and dedicated themselves exclusively to study (although as part of their education, the students did participate in teaching activities and other community activities). Several texts and programs of the Soviet universities were used, mainly from the University of Moscow, in addition to some western textbooks. The Editora Revolucionaria printed English, Spanish and French translations of Soviet textbooks or foreign editions in Cuba. The general concept was to give the student a strong physical–mathematical basis—both theoretical and experimental—before they began any specialization.
- 36.
Cuban students had been integrated into high-level studies in physics at the University of Parma since the very end of the 1960s (Sect. 6.3.3).
- 37.
See the contribution by Leccabue to this volume.
- 38.
Cf. Veltfort’s report and the reconstruction by Elena Vigil Santos, both in this volume.
- 39.
As a curiosity, it may be pointed out that for the manufacture of the first masks, a postage stamp copying camera was used. Donated by the Ministry of Communications, the same camera had been used years earlier for reproducing a celebrated Cuban postage stamp which featured the text of the First Declaration of Havana in very small print (Arias 1997).
- 40.
Cf. Waisman and Fieschi, both in this volume. Ms. V. Kleiber, Andrea Levialdi’s widow, was kind enough to supply documents on his life and activities.
- 41.
See Levialdi 1968; cf. Fieschi’s memories in this volume.
- 42.
Hand-written letter by A. Levialdi (November 14, 1968), provided by Ms. Kleiber.
- 43.
“Materiali Speciali per Elettronica e Magnetismo” (special materials for electronics and magnetism, today IMEM. The Italian physicist Andrea Levialdi (whose collaboration with Cuba will be discussed in the following) had begun in the years 1965–67 to develop at the University of Bari the production of monocrystal semiconductors for applications in photoconduction. Called subsequently to the University of Parma, he transferred this activity there, and its institute for physics became one of the most qualified centers in this technology. On this basis, the Italian research council (CNR) founded in those years the MASPEC Institute.
- 44.
Cf. Leccabue, in this volume.
- 45.
This is discussed in more detail by Cabal and Méndez Pérez in this volume.
- 46.
Nuclear technology’s most impressive developments were actually military focused, with the production and use of nuclear weapons at the end of the Second World War. However, nuclear technology has a wide spectrum of applications, some of them starting before the war. These ranged from civil energy applications (launched by Eisenhower’s 1953 “Atoms for Peace” campaign, and linked to military applications due to the intrinsic ‘dual-use’ of this technology), medical and industrial uses of radioisotopes, and other techniques such as nuclear spectroscopy, nuclear resonance and the Mössbauer effect.
- 47.
The Central Astronomical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences at Pulkovo, near St. Petersburg, is the principal astronomical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
- 48.
The Humboldt University of Berlin (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) is one of Berlin’s oldest universities, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin (Universität zu Berlin). After the war the Soviet military administration in Germany ordered the opening of the university in January 1946, redesigning the Berlin university according to the Soviet model, but for political reasons insisting, however, on the phrasing “newly opened” and not “re-opened.”
- 49.
Since 1956 the Forschungszentrum Rossendorf near Dresden has been a research center geared toward nuclear research. It was founded as a result of the International Conference for Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy held in 1955 in Geneva. The Soviet Union supplied the center with necessary equipment such as a particle accelerator and reactor. For the Dresden Technical University, see fn. 33.
- 50.
Cf. the interview with Melquíades de Dios Leyva in this volume.
- 51.
For more detail, see the chapter by Cabal and Méndez in this volume.
- 52.
Cuba has one of world’s best deposits of ore reserves rich in nickel and cobalt, localized to the north of its eastern region. At the time of the Revolution, two processing plants existed on North American property, which were nationalized. At the end of the 1980s, a third plant was built using Soviet technology. No refining plant exists. At present nickel is Cuba’s primary export.
- 53.
In the time of the Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau relations between Cuba and Canada were excellent.
- 54.
The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia was established on the basis of the convention signed by the plenipotentiaries of the governments of the Member States (Albania, Bulgaria, China, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Mongolia, North Korea, Poland, Romania, USSR and Vietnam) of the JINR in March 1956 in Moscow. The JINR was created in order to unify the intellectual and material potential of the Member States in order to study the fundamental properties of matter. This initiative was also a response to the creation in 1954 of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), near Geneva, to unite the efforts of Western European countries in this field of research.
- 55.
See the contribution by Cabal and Méndez to this volume.
- 56.
These experiments are described in the chapter by Juan Fuentes et al. in this volume.
- 57.
Cf. the chapter by Méndez Pérez in this volume.
- 58.
The program in biotechnology and the medical-pharmaceutical industry was initiated in the 1980s by the Cuban government to meet the needs of the national health system, and to create an export sector based on scientific achievement. The government strongly supported the creative groups in this field, which were producing new drugs, vaccines and immunoassay kits for detecting congenital defects in pregnancy. The investments in this sector were made exclusively by the Cuban state. In the second half of the 1980s, the integration of Cuban biotechnology products in programs of commercial interchange with the COMECON countries was pursued with the aim to provide the high technology market with Cuban products. This process ended with the construction of the Centro de Inmunoensayos, el Centro de Ingenieria Genetica y Biotectnología and others, with huge investments being made in the worst years of the special period. The research performed in these and other related and newly created scientific centres resulted in new advanced products, instruments, assay kits, vaccines, drugs and technologies, which at present are commercialized around the world.
- 59.
Cf. the contribution by de Melo Pereira and Sánchez Colina to this volume.
- 60.
For more information on this subject, see the chapter by Juan Fuentes et.al. in this volume.
- 61.
This experiment investigated the growth of semiconductor crystals under microgravity and was successfully carried out during the 1980 Soviet-Cuban space flight. See the contribution by Juan Fuentes et al. in this volume.
- 62.
Cf. the contribution by O. Arés and E. Altshuler in this volume.
- 63.
The considerable oil deposits in the Gulf of Mexico, recently discovered though still not exploited, were unknown at this time and renewable sources did not appear as a viable alternative.
- 64.
“Humboldt 7” is the address of the building in the Havana district of Vedado where four university students and members of the Revolutionary Directorate were hidden, survivors of the failed assault in March 13, 1957 on the Presidential Palace in Havana. After a delay, the building was invaded by the police and the students were killed.
- 65.
For details, see the chapter by Cabal Mirabal in this volume.
- 66.
The ICTP was founded in 1964 by the late Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, see http://www.ictp.it/homepage.aspx. Accessed October 17, 2013.
- 67.
Julio Antonio Mella (1903–1929) was a Cuban student leader and revolutionary, founder of the Federación Estudiantil Universitaria (FEU, University Student Federation) and of the first Cuban Communist Party. Due to his political activities, he was expelled from the University of Havana in 1926 and persecuted by the Gerardo Machado dictatorship. He moved to Mexico, where he continued his activities until he was murdered in 1929.
- 68.
Among the other main achievements of the group, let us mention a 400 W laser technological installation, Nd-YAG lasers (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet, a crystal used as a lasing medium for solid-state lasers) in free generation regime, and ruby modes synchronism with free generation of 0.5 J pulses regime, as well as a colour center switch for use in holography.
- 69.
Among them, the Denisyuk holograms of relics of the fighter for Cuban independence, General Antonio Maceo, personal objects that belonged to the national hero, José Martí, and Ernest Hemingway’s Nobel Prize medal.
- 70.
In 1976, the political-administrative division of the country was modified, expanding from 6 to 14 provinces. In this context, several centers, which worked as branches or offices of the existing universities, were changed to independent universities and received investments and more human resources to assist with their development.
- 71.
The military and civil collaboration of Cuba with the African anti-colonialist movements began in 1961. During the Angolan war (1975–1989), there was also a wide presence of Cuban doctors, teachers and builders in civil missions. After the signature of peace and the withdrawal of the Cuban and South African troops, the collaboration between Cuba and Angola continued to grow. In many other African countries, there is now a wide presence of Cuban doctors and other professional performing missions according to intergovernmental cooperation agreements, Gleijeses 2002.
- 72.
On March 25, 1984, Héctor Alfredo Pineda Zaldívar, a young Cuban physicist, fell during the defense of the city of Sumbe, in Kwanza South, Republic of Angola, where he was working as a teacher. After his death, the Cuban Higher Pedagogical Institute for Professional Technical Teaching was named after him.
- 73.
Acronyms respectively for: Centro Latino Americano de Física, Federación Latino Americana de Sociedades de Física, International Center for Theoretical Physics (Trieste), International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, International Atomic Energy Agency (Vienna), International Commission for Optics, and the organization which holds the international Olympiads in physics.
- 74.
- 75.
See the chapter by Cabal Mirabal in this volume.
- 76.
The presence of physicists in industry is greatly benefitted by the cooperation with academic physicists. When many physicists left industry, the academics lost their main interlocutors. Due to Cuba’s size, the absolute numbers are small: the number of physicists in industry were on the order of about one hundred at the beginning of the 1990s, which could have reduced to 20–30 by the end of the decade.
- 77.
There were many discussions with respect to this, however, the point of view prevailed that renewable energy sources—with the exception of cane biomass traditionally used in Cuba for electric generation—would not have a significant impact in the short term, and that the urgent energy needs of the country, in particular in the area of electric generation, had to be solved through the efficient use of fossil fuels (both imported and from national production). However, there were no investments made that guaranteed the future development of renewable energy sources. Electric generation continued on the basis of large thermoelectric plants integrated into a national distribution system and the contribution of cane biomass in the sugar plants. The recourse to solutions based on other energy sources was favored only for isolated communities with no access to the national network. These politics changed radically in 2005 when, during a electricity generation crisis, the so-called “Energy Revolution” began. The national electric energy system was decentralized, and hundreds of small electricity generators using diesel or fuel oil were installed to complement the production of the large-scale plants. Domestic electric equipment and devices were replaced on a massive scale with more efficient ones. The introduction of renewable energy sources was accelerated and their growth planned.
- 78.
See www.one.cu. (Oficina Cubana de Estadisticas e Información).
- 79.
See http://www.fisica.uh.cu/biblioteca/revcubfis. Accessed October 17, 2013.
- 80.
Respectively, the Federation of the Latin American and of the Ibero-American Societies of Physics.
- 81.
See as well the contributions to the third part of this book, in particular, the chapter by Leccabue.
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We dedicate this chapter to the memory of
Andrea Levialdi, an extraordinary figure consistently engaged in the struggles for social justice of his time, a militant antifascist and an outstanding scientist, who, terminally ill as he was, accepted an invitation to give a graduate course in Cuba. This, however, he could not finish because he passed away on December 8, 1968 in Havana, where his remains lie.
Fernando Crespo Sigler, whom we had the pleasure and the honor to collaborate with before his demise on June 12, 1997. He was a person and a scientist intensely committed to the best development of his country. We think the result of this historic research would have been much better had he lived long enough to follow it to its completion.
Appendix
Appendix
Data on the development of physics in Cuba are given in this appendix to support and document the analysis carried out.
1.1 A.1 Data on the Quantitative Achievements and Growth of Higher Education and Research up to 1976, from the Study Examined in Sect. 6.5.3
Tables A.1 and A.2 show the total number of graduates in physics and of publications on physics subjects. Table A.3 shows that starting in 1978, there was a remarkable increase in the number of physics PhDs.
1.2 A.2 Tables Related to the First Decade of the Twenty-First Century (Sect. 6.8.1)
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Baracca, A., Fajer Avila, V.L., Rodríguez Castellanos, C. (2014). A Comprehensive Study of the Development of Physics in Cuba from 1959. In: Baracca, A., Renn, J., Wendt, H. (eds) The History of Physics in Cuba. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 304. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8041-4_6
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