Federico Galves Alfonso

Surgeon physician, founder of the Academy of Sciences of La Habana.

He was born in Sabanilla, Matanzas. He completed his early studies at Colegio La Empresa, and later went on to study for his Doctor of Medicine degree at the Faculty of Paris, where he graduated with a doctoral thesis on cesarean section in December of 1855.

After graduating, he returned to Cuba where he performed the first major surgical operations carried out in the country and the Academy of Sciences had him as one of its Full Members.

In 1869 he emigrated to the United States, settling in Nueva York, where he died on January 21, 1889.