Science and Knowledge in the Service of Humanity: The Example of

Chapter 3

Stereochemistry and Global Connectivity: The Legacy of Ernest L. Eliel Volume 1 Downloaded from pubs.acs.org by UNIV OF FLORIDA on 11/19/17. For personal use only.

Science and Knowledge in the Service of Humanity: The Example of Ernest Eliel Luis A. Montero Cabrera* Facultad de Química, Universidad de La Habana, 10400 Havana, Cuba *E-mail: [email protected]

A description of the efforts of Prof. Ernest Eliel to communicate with Cuba and the Cuban Society of Chemistry and the subsequent developments is described. Despite political difficulties, these communications resulted in mutually beneficial scientific interactions. Prof. Eliel provided a good example of scientific statesmanship that placed human and scientific values above social, political and economic differences. These efforts contributed to the excellent and promising inter-society relationship existing nowadays.

In 1993, I had the privilege of holding a couple of long-distance telephone conversations in Spanish from Madrid with a prominent American scientist. The contact was made because the scientist had made known to his biographers and in a press interview that he got his chemistry degree from the University of Havana. The information was unexpected for me and actually astonished me because science was not in good shape in Cuba (1) before 1959. That scientist was at that time in a senior management position at the well-known and (for me) much admired American Chemical Society (ACS), one of largest professional organizations in the world. The phone partner was Prof. Ernest Eliel, a well-known organic chemist and guru of organic stereochemistry. Much of what is being exploited today of biologically active molecules could be understood from the early teachings of Prof. Eliel.

© 2017 American Chemical Society


The background in which this conversation took place was singular from the current perspective in the 21st century. For a chemist from Cuba where political reports and news media in the past 30 years portrayed everything from the U.S. as suspect and even hostile, the conversation could be considered particularly “risky.” However, it was a visionary dialogue between a representative of the scientific community of the U.S., the most powerful country in the world, and a poor Cuban scientist enjoying a sabbatical year in Spain at a time when everything in Cuba was precarious because of the deep economic crisis in Cuba in the 1990’s. At the time the support of the socio-polical process that underlay Cuban science was widely questioned. The U.S. was for many the “winner” of something that future generations will likely see as a big waste in history: the so-called “cold war.” It had divided the world into blocks where each party saw the same reality in a very different way according to their political philosophy and national interests. In those post-Cold War years, our country was trying to survive after the ideological and economic disaster of losing the vast majority of its external ties and references. The same people from Eastern Europe who a few years before showed themselves to be in solidarity with us according the “proletarian internationalism” suddenly changed their faces and told us that this was of no use. Suddenly we became a “rara avis” on the American continent. Many people bet that the only thing that could make progress was the “law of the jungle” in both the economic and the social spheres. Some looked at us with pity, others with the insane joy of those who contemplated the killing of the hated. Fortunately, many still treated us with respect. Even today I did not know Prof. Eliel’s political inclinations. I do not talk about political philosophy with most of my friends and collaborators in Cuba and abroad. They know mine through references and (I guess) some by pure intuition. Scientists who wish to work together for the benefit of knowledge and humanity avoid potentially divisive conversations on political and religious topics. In so doing, we avoid disagreements that can affect that common cause. The 1993 conversation with Prof. Eliel had been facilitated by another friend from the U.S. who is a scientist well known for the originality of his contributions: Prof. Roald Hoffmann, also a good friend of Cuba. At that time I was a vice president of the Cuban Society of Chemistry (SCQ). Unfortunately, SCQ was then essentially paralyzed in its operation and only existed in name. The direct and indirect results of these constructive telephone conversations can be felt today. We hope they will project into the future with the strength that is reinforced by the natural friendship and mutual benefits of the Cuban and U.S. chemical communities. In 1993 for the first time, a communication was established. From my part, I gave up instinctively many prejudices regarding the “dialogue with the enemy.” Everything indicated that the intention of Prof. Eliel was humane and altruistic. He wanted to embrace a chemical community that was geographically and historically close to the U.S., and to which he was sentimentally attached. It should be noted that these efforts would not improve his career; they were motivated only by a greatness of soul. Subsequently and during the rest of his life, Prof. Eliel and I, together with many colleagues in Cuba, sponsored a number of successful activities, some of them conducted during periods of worsening hostility between the U.S. and Cuba’s 50


governments. Other well-known Cuban chemists also established professional relations with him, and the ACS at his request invited a relatively large delegation of us to the Congress of Chemical Societies of North America in Cancun, Mexico, in 1997. Numerous delegations of North American chemists also participated in the activities of the SCQ in our country beginning in 2000, when SCQ was revived. Yet, Eliel’s efforts to place Cuba on the world scientific scene had not begun with the 1993 conversation mentioned earlier and the subsequent activities. Already in 1944, as an undergraduate student from the University of Havana, Eliel had published the first Cuban article in an ACS journal (2). It was probably also the first Cuban article in an international scientific journal during the 20th century. It may be interesting to know that, according to the convention of Cuban higher education before the Reformation of 1962 (3), graduates in basic sciences received the title of “Doctor” even though the training received was essentially comparable to the B.S. at the United States. Probably Ernest Eliel graduated with something like “Doctor of Physical and Chemical Sciences.” A very high proportion of these graduates only found employment in high school education in Cuba at that time. That degree became an inconvenience for Eliel when he decided to get his PhD in the U.S. As Eliel mentioned somewhere, his university had already consecrated him as a “Doctor”, so why did he need to study towards a PhD? Certainly his achievements in Cuba both scientifically and professionally deserved to be recognized. During the afternoon on October 20, 2004, a very remarkable event occurred in the historic “Aula Magna” of the University of Havana. At the request of the Cuban chemical community, particularly by the Faculty of Chemistry, Ernest Eliel’s Alma Mater awarded him a “Doctor Honoris Causa.” It was then a very rare opportunity in which the flags of the United States and Cuba were displayed together in a public and solemn act in Havana. Prof. Eliel gave a very moving speech (Figure 1). It was a tribute to knowledge and goodwill among our peoples, as it should be. It is worth mentioning that this occurred during a renewed hostile political environment between the two countries. The U.S. administration at the time was not friendly to Cuba and ignored or despised Cubans who live in Cuba. That year they issued an official document (4) that contained the following paragraph: “Large sums [of money] have also been directed to activities such as biotechnology centers and biosciences not appropriate in magnitude and expenditures for a fundamentally poor nation, and they have not been justified financially. In fact, this sector continues to receive strong investments independently of the cuts in other sectors of the economy, one of which is that of basic infrastructures. Investments in the biotechnology sector have not resulted in a basic internal capital flow, and have led to questions about the type of activities being undertaken.” The content of the above paragraph merits reflection, but what I have pointed out in italics is particularly striking. It declared that high-level science is not for us, that it is not for those “fundamentally poor” to do it. And that happened in the same year in which we honored in Cuba a successful common son for his scientific achievements and friendship. 51


Figure 1. Prof. Eliel speaking at the Univ. of Havana on the occasion of the “Doctor Honoris Causa” Award. (courtesy of the Eliel family). Fortunately, the great northern nation is also rich in people of good will. Science and knowledge are vehicles of friendship and humanity. What has happened in 2015 and 2016 in terms of rapprochement between the Cuban and American chemical communities is worthy of a phrase from President Obama: “We are all Americans.” America, with poorer and richer nations, from North to South, contains plenty of potential to provide all its peoples with a decent and respectable life and welfare. The actions of ACS and media have been influential in publicizing SCQ and Cuban chemistry in the northern country. A series of “Eliel Symposia” have been programmed in both countries where the main objective is scientific communication and educational exchange. A detailed account of these symposia would be outside the scope of this article. Suffice it to say that our mutual interest in diversity and inclusivity, the establishment of personal relationships, friendship and mutual help should serve as good foundations for future relations between Cuban and the U.S. scientific societies. Prof. Eliel and his efforts represented the 52

best manifestation of humanity and left a great legacy for people in both countries in the future. The joint Cuban-U.S. activities will be a result of the actions he undertook when very few predicted that those could happen in this way. Honor to whom honor deserves: Let’s toast to the memory of Prof. Ernest Eliel and his Cuban initiative!

References Stereochemistry and Global Connectivity: The Legacy of Ernest L. Eliel Volume 1 Downloaded from pubs.acs.org by UNIV OF FLORIDA on 11/19/17. For personal use only.

1.

2. 3. 4.

Truslow, F. A.; Armstrong, W. J.; Benton, H. A.; Lorenzana, J. C.; Funkhouser, R. L.; Glaessner, P. J. W.; Godwin, F. W.; Lees, M. B.; Mather, W. B.; Pajunen, P.; Russell, E. W.; Shrewsbury, C. L.; Staley, E.; Swerling, B. C.; Wijdenes, S. H. J.; Williams, C.; Wood, N. H. Report on CUBA. Findings and Recommendations; International Bank for Reconstruction and Development: Washington, DC, 1951. Eliel, E. L. Chromatographic adsorption. J. Chem. Educ. 1944, 21 (12), 583–588. La Reforma de la Enseñanza Superior en Cuba; Consejo Superior de Universidades: La Habana, 1962, p 115. Powell, C. L. Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba; U.S. State Department: Washington, DC, 2004.

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Science and Knowledge in the Service of Humanity: The Example of

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