Cuba pays tribute to Voisin, eminent French scientist

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 8 (ACN) The Cuban scientific community resumes today in Havana its traditional tribute to the eminent French scientist André Marcel Voisin (1903-1964), described by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro as an apostle of human health for his praiseworthy work.

The tribute to Voisin will be held at the Christopher Columbus Cemetery, to which academics, specialists, journalists and communicators are invited, according to the program available to the Cuban News Agency.

Raul Ruiz Pierrugues, Full Academician of the Section of Agricultural Sciences and Fisheries, will be in charge of the tribute to the man who dedicated his research and work to agriculture and livestock and introduced in Cuba the rotational grazing technique that bears his name.

Born in 1903 in France, Voisin graduated from the school of physics-chemistry in Paris with the best qualification, he was awarded three prestigious decorations as a combatant in World War II, the Cross of Agricultural Merit and Doctor Honoris Causa on four occasions by universities of several nations, including Cuba.

At the invitation of the head of the Cuban Revolution, he arrived in Havana on December 3, 1964, but on the 21st of that same month Fidel himself announced his death due to a heart attack.

His death left an everlasting mark in the scientific field and his collection of books and library, donated in their entirety, are part of the patrimony of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba.