Cuban academia pays tribute to Finlay

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 16 (ACN) The Cuban Academy of Sciences will remember and praise today the work of the most illustrious Cuban scientist: Carlos J. Finlay, with the traditional Oration held by the institution since 1933.
 
Academics, scientists and specialists were invited to this event established that year on the occasion of Finlay's centenary, a celebration that commemorates in Cuba the Latin American Medicine and Health Workers Day in honor of the medical community’s achievements in several fields of science and technology. 
 
 On August 14, 1881, Carlos Juan Finlay de Barres (1833-1915), presented at the Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences in Havana his thesis on the female mosquito—currently known as Aedes Aegypti—as a carrier of yellow fever and designed a plan to eradicate the disease.
 
Although he was among the six most famous microbiologists in history, he never received the Nobel Prize awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and other institutions despite the fact that he was nominated seven times between 1905 and 1915. However, in 1975, UNESCO listed him as one of the most outstanding experts in the history of this discipline and, on May 25, 1981, awarded for the first time the Prize for Microbiology named after Carlos J. Finlay in recognition of his work.