The announcement was made during an awards ceremony in Moscow where Cuban scientific aide Fidel Angel Castro Diaz-Balart received the Russian Kurchatov Award for his work in the nuclear sphere.
On behalf of the entire nuclear division, I present the highest award…the Kurchatov Award, to Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart. Today, we will renew our cooperation at [Cuba’s] nuclear research center that will allow us to develop a number of directions in modern science, Kiriyenko said.
Diaz-Balart is a member of Cuba’s Academy of Sciences and studied theoretical physics in the Soviet Union. Diaz-Balart has published varioius scientific papers in Cuba, Spain and Russia.
In 1980, Diaz-Balart headed Cuba’s nuclear agency at the time when the Soviet Union and Cuba commenced the construction of a nuclear plant. Cuba’s nuclear agency now works in a number of areas in nuclear physics, including biotechnology and the development of nanotechnology.
