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Esmeja
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Professor Pedro Kourí Esmeja
was born on 21 August 1900 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and died on 16
October 1964 in Havana, Cuba.
He graduated as Bachelor of Arts and
Sciences in 1918 in the Provincial Institute of Santiago de Cuba.
Being the first of his class, he was entitled to become an assistant
in the fields of Physics, Chemistry and Natural History within the
institute. |
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He began studying Medicine at the
University of Havana on 1 October 1919 and graduated on 1 July 1925.
He obtained outstanding marks throughout the courses and was awarded
26 ordinary, 2 extraordinary and 31 outstanding prizes. Once again, he
finished first (Eminent Student). Through competition, he became an
intern in several Havana hospitals.
On 2 October 1925 he
took up the position of graduate assistant of the Parasitology and
Tropical Diseases Chair of the University of Havana, thus being
considered one of its founders.
In January 1934 he obtained, through
competition, the post of assistant professor, and on 10 February 1938
he became full professor.
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As a result of his initiative, he
created the Institute of Tropical Medicine of the University of
Havana on 8 December 1937 and became its director.
Professor Pedro Kourí represented
Cuba at various national and international congresses. At the III
World Congress on Microbiology, held in New York in 1939, he
announced his discovery of a new parasite, the Inermicapsifer
cubensis.
In 1940 he received the National
Order of Honor and Merit, with the rank of officer, from the
Government of Haiti, and in 1949 he was bestowed the Cuban National
Order of Merit "Carlos J. Finlay". |
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He was a member of various national and international scientific
societies as well as the founding vice-president of the Cuban
Society of Biology and Tropical Medicine "Carlos J. Finlay". He was
founding director of the Journal of Clinical Parasitology and
Laboratory, which later became the Journal of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, Clinical Bacteriology and Laboratory, later still Kuba
Magazine, and is currently the
Cuban Journal of
Tropical Medicine (Revista
Cubana de Medicina Tropical)
He published over one
hundred scientific works, some of which dealt with research and
others with public information and scientific education.
He developed methods
for diagnosis as well as original treatments for numerous parasitic
diseases of mankind. He wrote, in four volumes, his "Lessons on Parasitology and Tropical Medicine".
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He was vice-dean
(1940-1953) and dean (1953-1956) of the School of Medicine of the
University of Havana. He was founding member of the Board of
Directors of the Summer School. He developed courses for doctors,
medicine students and professors since 1937. He began the cultural
and educational exchanges between the University of Havana and the
Cornell University Medical College of New York.
In the last decade of
his life, he directed his efforts towards the planning, organization
and regulation of a vast educational plan whose final objective was
the arduous task of eradicating parasitism from Cuba. |
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His scientific work embraced three basic objectives: Education,
Scientific Research and Medical Care. Education is considered to be
the most important, and the one to which he devoted most of his
time.
As can be seen, in
addition to research and education, he carried out creative work.
The University praises the savant, one of its most modest workers,
proclaiming him "Extraordinary Professor of the School of Medicine
of the Bicentennial University of Havana".
In spite of his age,
he kept his youthful impulses in every new initiative, and he
complained when his health did not allow him to carry out certain
tasks. After accomplishing a very fruitful work throughout his life,
and in the midst of activity, Professor Pedro Kourí Esmeja passed
away on 16 October 1964. |
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Mario Barrientos
Rodríguez,
Engineer:
Website Editor, Informatics Science Engineer |"Pedro Kourí" Tropical Medicine Institute | Avenida
Novia del Mediodía, KM 6 1/2, La Lisa, Ciudad de La Habana, CP. 11400,
Cuba.
or P.O. Box 601, Marianao 13, La Habana, Cuba.
Phones: (537) 202 0425, (537) 255-3182
Last Update: 22
December 2011
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