Sergio Arce Bustabad

DrCs Sergio Arce Bustabad, physician specialist in nephrology, eminent researcher, distinguished professor.

Holding the category of Senior Researcher and Researcher of Merit, Senior Professor and Consultant at the University of Medical Sciences of Havana and Senior Member and Member of Merit of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, DrCs Sergio Arce Bustabad continued to be an educated, respectful, simple, modest man and in solidarity with anyone who needed him.

A native of Havana, during his years as a medical student he distinguished himself through his activities as Professor of Philosophy and member of the founding group of the first School of Marxism-Leninism that operated at the School of Medicine and at the University of Havana after the triumph of the Revolution.

He was founder of the student magazine "16 de Abril" (1961) and sub-director of the newspaper Alma Mater, in which he published several political articles. He graduated as Doctor of Medicine in 1965 and completed his Medical Social Service on the Isle of Youth and in Villa Clara.

Specialist of 1st and 2nd degree in Nephrology and Specialist of 2nd degree in Immunology. Member of the Founding group of the Institute of Nephrology, directed by Professor Abelardo Buch López and Founder of Renal Transplantation in Cuba.

In 1972 he obtained a scholarship in France, where he had the privilege of being a student of professors Jean Dausset, Nobel Prize in Medicine and discoverer of the HLA system, and Jean Hamburger, one of the pioneers of Nephrology worldwide.

Founder in Cuba of Renal Transplant Immunology, of the Department of Immunology of the Institute of Nephrology, of the National Network of Histocompatibility Laboratories and of the National Coordinating Center of Renal Transplantation that allowed the creation of a scientifically grounded and organized National Renal Transplant Program.

Also founder of Adult Clinical Immunology, of the Cuban Journal of Biomedical Research and of the Immunology Journal of Spain.

In keeping with his great social commitment since his youth, he fulfilled an internationalist mission in Ethiopia as Invited Professor of Nephrology and Internal Medicine and Head of the group of Cuban professors. He also completed a collaboration mission in Peru for the integration of a Cadaver Renal Transplant Program, also serving as Head of the group of Cuban professors.

As a specialist, researcher and professor, he served as President, Secretary, Board Member or Opponent in dozens of panels of Specialists of First and Second Degree in Nephrology and Immunology, for candidates for Doctors in Medical Sciences and Doctors in Sciences, for categorization of professors of Nephrology and Internal Medicine. President of the Permanent National Panel of the Specialty of Second Degree in Immunology, and permanent Member of the evaluating panels of the Annual Prize of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba.

He participated in more than 150 congresses, workshops and other national and international events as organizer and/or speaker; coordinator and professor of national and/or international courses. He made working visits or short stays in Immunology services in several first-world countries, including France, England, Spain, USA, former East Germany and USSR, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Australia, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico and Ethiopia.

But all the knowledge he accumulated in his professional, teaching and scientific practice, he did not keep for himself alone to shine, but rather shared it with his colleagues, national and international, through the publication of six books (four in Cuba, one in Ethiopia and one in Peru), articles in national and international journals, as well as scientific popular outreach articles in magazines and newspapers, national and international.

Among the multiple responsibilities he assumed throughout his life, the following stand out: Advisor on Scientific Policy of MINSAP, Secretary of the Biomedicine Branch of the State Committee of Science and Technology, Secretary of the State Problem of Organ and Tissue Transplantation MINSAP, responsible for Cuba before COMECON on the Immunology of Transplantation subject, Member of the National Groups of Nephrology, Immunology and Renal Transplant Coordination, Vice-President of the Scientific Society of Immunology, Member of the Peruvian Societies of Transplantation, Latin American Transplantation and International Nephrology and Founding Member of the Cuban National Committee on Bioethics, of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba.

For his great contribution to Cuban medical sciences, teaching, research and public health, he received several Awards: Outstanding Scientific Achievement of MINSAP, at the First Scientific Forum of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba; Annual Award, National Level of MINSAP, in three years; Annual National Prize of the Immunology Society on two occasions; National Prize of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, Special National Prize for Greatest Integration, of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment and Prize in the Central Competition of the Annual Health Prize, in two years.

For his rich professional, scientific, teaching and political trajectory, he received numerous Distinctions, among which stand out:
For his rich professional, scientific, teaching and political trajectory, he received numerous Distinctions, among which stand out:
─Carlos J. Finlay Order (2014)
─National Order of the Republic of Benin.
─International Worker,
─Senior Member (1998) and Member of Merit (2012)
─Manuel Fajardo Medal for 25 years of work in Public Health.
─Diploma Founder of the Institute of Nephrology
─Diploma Founder of Renal Transplantation in Cuba ─Distinction for Cuban Education,
─José Tey Medal.
─Distinction Outstanding Educator of the 20th Century, awarded by the National Association of Educators of Cuba. ─Commemorative Coin Centennial of the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba.
─Outstanding National of ANIR
─Medal Founder of the University Militias José A. Echeverría.
─Medal Founder of the Revolutionary National Militias. ─Medal Founder of the UJC.