On 16 October 2024, Professor Fernando Guzmán Martínez, a great friend of JINR and a member of Institute’s Scientific Council in 2007–2012, passed away.

Fernando Guzmán Martínez

30/05/1951 – 16/10/2024

Fernando Guzmán Martínez was born in Cuba on 30 May 1951 into a poor family. He was 8 when the Cuban Revolution won, finally giving him an opportunity to study in school. From 1968 to 1972, he was a nuclear physics student at the Physics Department of the University of Havana. Later, from 1981 to 1984, he prepared and defended his PhD thesis in heavy ion collision theory in the Dresden University of Technology. Throughout his life, ever since graduating from the University of Havana, Professor Guzmán was involved in physics research and scientific personnel training.

Professor Guzmán taught quantum optics for 6 years at the Technical Military Institute in Havana. Then, at 30, he became the Head of the Physics and Chemistry Department at the Higher School of Artillery, where he taught physics and quantum theory for seven years. He worked at INSTEC since its establishment in 1986. The research centre, called ISCTN at the time, was created specifically to train nuclear physicists in Cuba, something Professor Guzmán was always a staunch advocate of. He headed the Department of Nuclear Physics from 1986 to 1994 and was the Rector of the Institute for 15 years, until 2009. During all this time, the scientist read lectures on the nuclear reaction theory and the nucleus structure. From 2009 to 2024, he taught phenomenology of high-energy physics.

Fernando Guzmán Martínez supervised dissertations, master’s and PhD theses of many generations of young Cuban researchers and authored more than 150 scientific publications. He made a special effort to develop collaborative particle physics projects with the universities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Bahia State in Brazil. In addition, he actively promoted the participation of Cuban students in the LHC Experiments through developing cooperation with the DESY Institute in Hamburg.

Professor Guzmán was one of the main proponents of joint work with JINR. It was thanks to him that JINR and the University of Havana established a strong partnership in personnel training, which allowed many undergraduate Cuban students to successfully prepare their graduate projects in Dubna. On Professor Guzmán’s initiative, the University of Havana joined the SPD Collaboration at the NICA Collider, currently under construction. He represented the Republic of Cuba in the JINR Scientific Council from 2007 to 2012. His personal virtues, including a sense of humor, leadership skills, approachable demeanour, and intelligence, earned him great respect from both students and fellow researchers.

The JINR Directorate, colleagues, and friends