Fidel Ángel Castro Díaz-Balart

Nuclear physicist, eldest son of Fidel Castro and Mirta Díaz-Balart. He was an intellectual who published numerous works in the fields of Physics, Nuclear Energy, and Knowledge Management. He is considered one of the most prestigious Cuban scientists for his keen global vision and his great concern for organizing science in function of societal progress. Full Professor and Academic of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba and Doctor Honoris Causa of the Higher Institute of Technologies and Applied Sciences (INSTEC).

His parents divorced before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution; afterward, Mirta moved to Miami, United States, with the Díaz-Balart family, taking her son with her. Fidel Jr. returned to Cuba as a child to visit his father, and remained on the island for the rest of his childhood.

After completing his studies in his country, he moved to the Soviet Union where he became a Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences from the I. V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy in Moscow.

He graduated in Nuclear Physics from Lomonosov State University in Moscow (1974). Upon returning to Cuba, he obtained a second doctorate in Sciences from the Higher Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology in Havana, and was in charge of Cuba's nuclear energy program, serving as executive secretary of the Cuban Atomic Energy Commission and the Executive Secretariat of Nuclear Affairs between 1980 and 1992, until his father removed him from office.

Regardless of his brilliant scientific results and his responsibilities as a manager, he began to develop great concern toward Business Management and Industrial Policy, resulting from his work in the Management of Cuban Basic Industry in oil processing, nickel and cobalt; as well as in the use of electricity.

He was in charge of the development of the Juraguá Nuclear Plant in Cienfuegos.

His work allowed him to accumulate vast experience in handling indicators of scientific and technical development at national and international levels, enabling him to properly illustrate the reasons for the successes and failures of several scientific initiatives in Cuba.

With broad knowledge of the world economy, he defended the idea that it increasingly finds its support in the value of knowledge, information, and innovation.

He published several works illustrating the problems of science and technology based on knowledge development, as well as its social aspect and corresponding influence on politics, economics, and culture.

After seven years away from public view, he returned in 1999 to take on an advisory position at the Ministry of Basic Industry and dedicate himself to scientific outreach as a nuclear physicist.

He wrote several books and articles on scientific topics. He was a scientific advisor to the Council of State and vice president of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba.

He made several working visits to different countries, offering press conferences and exchanging with scientific and educational authorities.

He was able to present with certainty and clarity the possibilities of collaboration between Cuba and other nations.

He was an unflinching defender of the elimination of weapons of mass destruction and the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. He promoted work with nanotechnology in Cuba.

He had three children, Mirta María, Fidel Antonio, and José Raúl, with Natasha Smirnova, whom he met in Russia. After divorcing Smirnova, he married Cuban María Victoria Barreiro, daughter of State Security General Luis Barreiro.

Castro Díaz-Balart committed suicide on February 1, 2018, at age 68. He had been hospitalized for depression.