Manuel Antonio Amador García

A man of vast culture and extraordinary human sensitivity, with recognized national and international prestige in the field of Pediatrics and human nutrition and food science, who devoted all his efforts and knowledge to the service of human health, especially that of children and in the field of nutrition.

He was a brilliant man since his student days, always distinguished with the best grades and honors. He graduated at the top of his class in 1962 from the School of Medicine at the University of La Habana. That same year he joined the Rural Medical and Social Service, an initiative implemented by the nascent Revolution to bring healthcare to the most remote corners of the country. He offered his services as a physician in Bernardo, in the Baracoa region, in the province of Guantánamo, to which he added his outstanding work as a teacher of Worker-Peasant Advancement. The result of this work was the first group of nursing technique graduates.

He also left his mark on the culture of the region, as he contributed to bringing portable cinema to the residents and his interest in research led him to conduct the first epidemiological and social study of the town with a parasitological and nutritional study that he presented at the First National Medical Congress.

He completed his Residency in Pediatrics at the William Soler Teaching Pediatric Hospital and graduated as a Specialist in Pediatrics in 1966. He organized the teaching of the specialty in several provincial hospitals, which earned him recognition at the highest level of the Ministry of Public Health.

He completed studies in Pediatric Nutrition at Semmelveis Medical University in Hungary and qualified as a PhD in 1978 from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for his work "Energy-Protein Index: A New Approach to Evaluating Nutritional Status". In 1980 the Cuban Committee of Scientific Degrees awarded him the Doctorate in Medical Sciences.

From 1977 he was Professor of Pediatrics and held multiple professional and administrative positions, among which stand out the leadership of Medical Interns and Residents at the William Soler Teaching Pediatric Hospital, Sub-director of that hospital, Sub-director of Research at the School of Medicine at the University of La Habana, Vice-Dean of Research at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of La Habana, and Director of Research at the Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene from 1984, a position he held at the time of his death.

His scientific activities were innumerable: he participated in more than ninety national and international events as a speaker, invited guest, president or member of symposiums, workshops and roundtables; president or secretary of scientific sessions and member of multiple organizing committees of events with more than 140 presentations. He published more than 150 scientific works in the form of books, monographs and articles in national and foreign periodicals. He was Secretary of the Cuban Society of Pediatrics, Director of the Cuban Journal of Pediatrics until his death, member of the Advisory Committee for Child Nutrition and Health Research Policies of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) since 1977, of the Committee of the International Union of Nutrition Sciences in various periods until his death; President of the jury for the selection of the best scientific work in public health, member of the National Commission for the Awarding of Scientific Degrees, of the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids, of the International Society of Pediatrics, of the Academy of Sciences of New York, of the Latin American Association of Pediatrics and Latin American Nutrition, of the Advisory Committee of the Journal Nutrition and of the Cuban Journal of Food and Nutrition. In his teaching activities he taught 51 national courses and 16 international courses, invited professor at national and international congresses in several countries of the Americas and other continents. He supervised 21 Specialist theses and 8 doctorates in Pediatrics or Clinical Nutrition.

At the time of his death he held numerous national and international distinctions and awards in the fields of teaching and research. Likewise, he received honorary distinctions from foreign cities and institutions as recognition of his merits:

Guest of Honor of the capital of the Republic decreed by the H. Municipal Mayor's Office of Chuquisaca, during the XI Bolivian Congress of Pediatrics, on September 22, 1983.
Honorary Member of the Dominican Society of Pediatrics, August 25, 1984.
Honorary Member of the Medical College of Tungurahua, decreed by that college when he was a speaker at the XI National Medical Congress in the city of Ambato, on April 13, 1987.
Active Member of the Latin American Association of Pediatrics, on January 5, 1989.
Guest of Honor of the city of Cochabamba decreed by the mayor's office of the H. Municipality of Cochabamba, on June 20, 1990.
Distinguished Guest of the City of Mérida, decreed by the Council of the Municipality of Libertador, State of Mérida, Venezuela, on November 28, 1991.

Due to the entirety of his work and his scientific and professional trajectory, the Pan American Health Organization extended him a proposal to occupy the position of Regional Advisor in Food and Nutrition of that Organization to begin in 1992, but the diagnosis of his illness made its consideration impossible.