GAF
Guantanameros recognized with the 2020 Cuban Academy of Sciences Award
Drs.C. Igor Bidot Martínez and Yurelkys Fernández Maura, professors at the Agroforestry Faculty of the University of Guantánamo (UG), deserved the 2020 Cuban Academy of Sciences Award, which recognizes outstanding research from the nation and their contributions to socioeconomic development.
The Guantanamo residents won the award as authors of the study: Morphological, genetic and phytopathological diversity of traditional Cuban cacao (Theobroma cacao L.); of which the UG appears as the main executing entity. The research, awarded in the Agricultural and Fisheries Sciences section, stands out among its merits for the morphological and molecular characterization of the plant, and included a selection of various specimens, and will allow to establish conservation strategies as well as the sustainable management of that long-term cultivation, it also serves to document the set of genes that is transmitted by reproduction. The study previously won two awards from the rector of the UG, as well as one from the territorial delegation of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment. The results are also supported by six publications in high-level scientific journals. Other executing entities include the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium; that of Havana, and the Institute of Agroforestry Research of Baracoa. The Prize of the Cuban Academy of Sciences has been awarded since 1990 to motivate scientific research, and this time it recognized the contributions of 102 studies carried out in 2020 by personalities from various provinces of the country.
