The University of Havana announced this Wednesday the passing of Concepción Valdés Castro, Emeritus Professor of that institution and the first Cuban woman to attain the degree of Doctor in Mathematical Sciences.
"The university community deeply mourns the passing of Dr. Concepción Valdés Castro, an essential figure in the teaching of Mathematics in Cuba," expressed the institution when announcing the news on its social media.
The institution emphasized that "its teaching was characterized by intellectual rigor, a passion for teaching, and a commitment to service in Cuban higher education."
"To his family, colleagues, students, and friends, we extend our deepest condolences, confident that his legacy will remain alive in every classroom, in every book, and in every professional trained under his guidance," concluded the University of Havana.
Valdés Castro, born in 1946, passed away last Sunday during a flight between Panama and Havana, while returning from participating in the Latin American Meeting on Educational Mathematics, held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
He completed his high school education at the Instituto de la Víbora and entered the University of Havana in the early years of the 1960s.
He was part of the second graduating class after the University Reform and began giving lectures to students in lower courses while he was still in his second year, due to the shortage of teachers.
In 1976, she obtained her PhD in Mathematical Sciences from Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov, becoming the first Cuban to achieve that scientific degree in the field.
He dedicated over five decades to teaching, research, and training generations of mathematicians, primarily from the classrooms of the University of Havana.
His academic work focused particularly on Mathematical Analysis, with research also related to Queueing Theory and Reliability.
The University of Havana also recognized her as the founder of the Mathematics degree in Cuba.
Her career was closely linked to the early years of that specialty: she started as a student assistant and later became a member of the faculty at the current School of Mathematics and Computer Science.
Together with the mathematician Carlos Sánchez Fernández, her husband and life partner, she developed a substantial body of pedagogical and outreach work on the history of mathematics.
Among the books she co-authored are The Bernoulli: Geometers and Travelers, The Functions: A Journey Through Their History, From the Bernoullis to Bourbaki: A History of the Art and Science of Calculus, and Kolmogorov: The Tsar of Chance.
Among the recognitions received throughout his career, the Sofía Kovalevskaya Award stands out in the Lifetime Achievement category, as well as the Raimundo Reguera Award, which is intended to honor outstanding contributions in the field of Mathematics.
Valdés Castro received the Sofia Kovalevskaya Award in March 2023, during a ceremony held at the Aula Magna of the University of Havana.
Her passing adds to the loss of other Cuban academic figures that the university community has mourned in recent months.
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