Pedro Antonio Valdés Sosa

Distinguished Senior Researcher, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, where he says his passion for science began. After his family returned to Cuba in 1961, he studied medicine, received his doctorate in biological sciences, and in 1990 at the age of 40, he founded the Cuban Center for Neurosciences, with a group of young scientists that included his brother Mitchell, who is currently the Vice-director of the Center.

Born in a working-class neighborhood of Chicago, United States, in 1950, the renowned researcher Pedro Valdés Sosa today states that his father (physician Pedro A. Valdés Vivó) played a notable role in his education and the formation of values in him and his twin brother Mitchell.

"My dad had two great passions, science and medicine on one hand, and his firm political convictions on the other, which caused him to turn our house into a place where the just cause of the July 26 Movement was felt."

That atmosphere of revolutionary struggle to overthrow Batista's dictatorship and his love for Cuba marked him from childhood. Thus when in 1961 the family returned to Havana, Peter, as his friends and coworkers call him, devoted himself entirely to the activities undertaken by the youth of the era and joined the Association of Rebel Youth (AJR), which later became the Union of Communist Youth.

He completed his pre-university studies in just eighteen months, and in 1966 he enrolled in the Medicine program at the University of Havana, at just 16 years old. Together with his brother Mitchell and Agustín Lage, they were part of the founding group of the student scientific movement at that institution of higher learning.

"When I began my second year, I became involved with the National Center for Scientific Research (CNIC), specifically in the Neurophysiology Laboratory, where I met those who would become my mentors, professors Thalía Harmony, a Mexican who came to teach and conduct science in Cuba out of solidarity with the Revolution, and Erwin Roy John, from New York University, who was very involved in the creation of the first Cuban microcomputer CID-201."

As Peter recalls, with that prototype he learned to program methods for analyzing brain electrical activity, and his definitive vocation for neurosciences was born. Likewise, that unique experience contributed to his understanding of the importance of using the most advanced science possible to solve the country's problems and those of other peoples.

He remained at the CNIC until he graduated as a physician in 1972 and was assigned to that same institution, where he remained always dedicated to research in the aforementioned discipline, until the Cuban Center for Neurosciences (CNEURO) emerged independently in 1990.

Current Vice-director of Research at CNEURO, and full member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences and the Latin American Academy of Sciences, Dr. Pedro Valdés Sosa contributed to the development of methods for computer diagnosis of brain diseases, being one of the creators of brain electrical tomography (one of his patents).

Likewise, he made a significant contribution to the design and development of the Medicid equipment family, as well as the software used in them. Additionally, he is co-founder of the National Network of Clinical Neurophysiology Laboratories, which emerged in 1982, one of the initiators of the hearing screening program in our country (1983), and a member of the scientific committee that supervised complete population studies of people with disabilities in Cuba and Venezuela.

Mentor of nine doctoral theses and more than twenty master's theses, Peter has published more than 210 original articles, and is editor of the journals Audiology and Neuro-Otology, Neuroimage, PLOS One and Frontiers in Brain Imaging Methods.

His fruitful professional career includes having been visiting professor at the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the RIKEN Institute in Tokyo, Japan, and being the foreign director of the 111 Neuroinformation Project of the Ministry of Education of China, based at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of Chengdu.

At the request of the Ministry of Public Health, he directs the Cuban Brain Mapping Project, which among other objectives, aims to develop diagnostic tools for the early detection of neurological and psychiatric diseases, and to better understand how this vital organ functions.

"Our project maintains strong ties of exchange and collaboration with the other projects being carried out in the world, and in certain areas of this effort we have achieved a recognized position that we must maintain."

"Among the main results we achieved the characterization for an age range of 15 to 60 years, the cortical thickness and brain connections of the typical Cuban, information that will be of great practical use in the study of patients with epilepsy, language disorders, violent behavior, schizophrenia and several neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases."

The scientist has stated that the accelerated progress of neuroimaging and neuroinformatics open promising paths to understand what role each region of the brain plays in mental processes, why some individuals learn faster than others, the structural changes that suggest the onset of specific disorders, and the search for probable influences of environmental factors on its functioning.

He emphasized that Cuba was chosen as a member of the board of the World Organization for Human Brain Mapping (its annual congresses convene more than three thousand specialists), where our position has been that one cannot think only of first-rate science, but of seeing how that science can be brought to public health systems throughout the world.

Tall in stature and bearing a thick beard, Peter advocates for addressing the aging of our population from the perspective of brain studies, taking into account that according to projections within about 20 years we will have around 300,000 people with Alzheimer's dementia, if we do nothing to help mitigate such a worrying prediction.

"Cuba has exceptional conditions for conducting research aimed at the early detection of some alterations that could suggest the future appearance of that terrible disease, in addition to having a health system capable of guaranteeing all patients access to any advances that may be achieved in this regard," he emphasized.

In the opinion of Dr. Pedro Valdés, the life of a researcher is a calling for which one must be willing to fight until one's last breath, a practice where the true meaning of life lies in turning the search for knowledge into an inexhaustible source of well-being for the people.

Senior Researcher, Full Professor, Vice-Director of Research
Cuban Center for Neurosciences
Since 2015 he has worked at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) based in Chengdu. As a professor of neuroinformatics and neuroscience, he and his coworkers use computer and telecommunications technology to study how the brain functions and to try to develop related technologies and instruments to help detect brain diseases as early as possible.

Professional Experience
Head of Computing Department CNIC. 1971-1974
Head of Computing Laboratory Neurophysiology Department CNIC 1972-1981
Director of Graduate Studies. CNIC 1974-1978
Member of the General Scientific Council CNIC 1976-
Member of the National Committee of Scientific Degrees 1987-1990
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Cuban Minister of Health 1990-
Head of the Special Group for Neurosciences, CNIC 1982-1985
Head of the Department of Neurophysics and Neurocybernetics. Neurosciences Directorate. CNIC 1982-1990
Vice Director and Founder of the Cuban Center for Neurosciences 1990-
Member of the Editorial Committee of the Scientific journals Neuroimage, Audiology and Neurootology, PlosOne and Brain Connectivity.

Additional Professional Activities
Full Professor at the Institute of Medical Sciences
Member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences
Member of the Academy of Sciences of Latin America
Associate member of the International Center for Theoretical Physics
Visiting Professor at the Institute of Mathematical Statistics of Japan
Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Brain Sciences of RIKEN, Japan
Visiting Professor invited by the Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom

Professional Member
Cuban Society of Physiological Sciences (1974-)
Cuban Society of Biological Sciences (1979-)
Cuban Society of Neurosciences (1989-), President of the Neurocybernetics Section 1985-1991)
Mathematical Society of Cuba (1983-)
Cuban Society of Clinical Neurophysiology (1990-), President 1993-2000
Cuban Society of Bioengineering (1979-)
Cuban Society of Physics: Biophysics Section (1990-)
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Society of Electrical and Magnetic Brain Topography (1991-)
Honorary Professor of University College London (UCL)

Community Activities
Co-organizer of the National Network of Clinical Neurophysiology 1981-

Interests and Activities
Statistical analysis of electrophysiological measurements
Neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG and MEG tomography)
Non-linear dynamic model of brain function
Software and electrophysiological equipment development

Honors Received
Order "Carlos J. Finlay" for scientific achievements 1995
Order "José Tey" for dedication to the training of other professionals 2006