Havana, February 20 (RHC-ACN)-- Representatives from Cuba and France signed a cooperation agreement over the weekend to create a joint scientific cooperation program.

The agreement bears the names of two eminent scientists, French Hubert Curien and Cuban Carlos J. Finlay, and was signed at the headquarters of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment.

Danae de Paz Grau, a specialist with the Ministry's Trade Policy with Europe Directorate told the press that the program provides for joint research projects, with the aim of strengthening scientific and technological exchanges, in addition to promoting the creation of internationally recognized research networks.

The new agreement, she said, is the result of the will of the two nations to expand and strengthen the French-Cuban scientific cooperation at the service of common interests.

Hubert Curien (1924-2005) was a French physicist and key figure as president of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and also headed the European Space Agency (ESA).

Carlos Juan Finlay de Barres (1833-1915) discovered that the female Aedes aegypti mosquito was the transmitter of yellow fever and developed an anti-vector plan as the only solution to eradicate that disease in the 19th century.

Although he is considered one of the six most famous microbiologists of the world, he never received the Nobel Prize granted by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and other institutions despite being nominated seven times during the period from 1905 to 1915.

However, in 1975, UNESCO included Cuban scientists among the most outstanding experts in the history of microbiology and on May 25, 1981 granted for the first time the International Award that bears his name to recognize advances in that field of medical science.