AAAS and Cuban Academy of Sciences Brainstorm on U.S.-Cuba Shared Challenges and Opportunities in Aging and Disaster Management

A U.S.-based delegation led by AAAS traveled to Havana to discuss potential areas of collaboration with Cuban scientists at a professional meeting on aging and disaster management from March 19-20. 

Attendees from the U.S. and Cuba learned about national and local efforts in both countries to address natural and man-made disasters, scientific research on aging in the U.S. and the Caribbean, and the scientific publishing process, among other topics.

“This meeting is an opportunity to think of ways our two scientific communities can work together to solve our shared challenges, from an aging population to the next hurricane,” said Willie May, AAAS president and vice president for research and economic development at Morgan State University, during his opening remarks.

May led the 20-person AAAS delegation with AAAS Board members Keith Yamamoto (immediate former president) and Juan Ramirez Lugo and former AAAS president Peter Agre. Representatives from U.S. federal scientific agencies, nongovernmental organizations and universities were also part of the group.

This was the second professional meeting co-organized by AAAS and the Cuban Academy of Sciences since renewing their Memorandum of Understanding at the same venue—the former Palace of the Captains General in Old Havana—in 2022. A few blocks away in March 2023, another AAAS-led delegation took part in the first professional meeting to discuss the future of U.S.-Cuba scientific cooperation.

New and ongoing conversations on public health and the environment

“This meeting solidified the urgency, importance and need for collaboration given that both countries are facing an increased prevalence in Alzheimer’s disease,” said Ramon Velazquez, assistant professor at Arizona State University, after the meeting. He and Cuban neuroscientists plan to identify environmental factors that contribute to the increased prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease, particularly whether dietary demands of essential nutrients like choline are being met, a subject Velazquez has been studying in the U.S. population.

While some in the delegation like Velazquez were visiting Cuba for the first time, others like Kevin Bialy, regional program director for the Western Hemisphere at the National Institute of Health’s Fogarty International Center, took this opportunity to continue ongoing conversations with Cuban counterparts. Bialy noted this was the third time in the past six months that he was meeting with Cuban scientists. In October 2023, when AAAS sponsored a Cuban Academy-led delegation to visit Washington, D.C. Bialy facilitated meetings between the delegation and representatives of several NIH’s institutes and centers. 

During the opening session, Elizabeth McLanahan, director of NOAA’s Office of International Affairs, provided an overview of NOAA’s research priorities and products to support disaster management, which include driving innovation science to better track hurricanes and tsunamis as well as effectively responding to over 150 oil spills in water each year. 

“The meeting provided an exciting opportunity to share experiences on aging and disaster management, as well as make connections between the two topics and learn from each other on how to address these growing problems,” said McLanahan. In 2023, she also met with the Cuban Academy-led delegation that visited Washington, DC. 

Throughout the two-day meeting, McLanahan and Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center, interacted with their counterparts from Cuba’s Institute of Meteorology (INSMET). Rhome noted that U.S. hurricane aircraft are permitted to fly in Cuban airspace, which is crucial for NHC’s activities in the region. 

Daysaríh Tápanes Robau, INSMET’s Director of International Relations, spoke along Rhome on preparing and responding to natural disasters. She underscored one of the goals of the MoU between NOAA and INSMET is to maintain proper communication between Cuba, Miami and the Florida Keys as hurricanes often hit both areas. 

An unlikely connection between aging and disaster management 

Specialists on aging and disaster management actively participated during the sessions outside their area of expertise. This led to attendees drawing connections between both topics, which are unlikely to be put together during standard scientific conferences. 

During his presentation, Rhome noted there is not enough focus on social vulnerability when discussing risk and disaster management, emphasizing that disabled and elder communities tend to be the most vulnerable during natural disasters. Hence, Rhome invited the health community to provide more input to disaster specialists on tracking vulnerability as well as direct and indirect mortality. 

The talks on natural disasters triggered multiple questions and comments from Cuban and U.S. speakers from both fields related to evacuation protocols, community involvement in the production of maps and on how the U.S. and Cuba draft preparedness plans.

Megan Zuelsdorff, assistant professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, asked Rhome about community-specific assets and ways in which the health community could mitigate harm. Zuelsdorff, who spoke at a session on aging from a transdisciplinary perspective, studies social disparities in cognitive aging in the U.S. She talked about how stressful living conditions impact brain health and the positive impact of social connectedness.

“Across this multi-disciplinary, international group, there was a sense of teamwork and common foundation that made the connections between our work feel intuitive and the means of achieving them feel within reach,” said Zuelsdorff after the meeting. “I finished the meeting feeling optimistic, highly motivated to collaborate on next steps and to integrate my new colleagues’ perspectives into my existing research and service,” she concluded.

The AAAS delegation included scientists affiliated with ten different universities based in eight states across the U.S. It featured a wide range of backgrounds: for some, like Zuelsdorff, this was their first exposure to the Cuban research system. Others highlighted their long-standing partnerships with Cuban counterparts during their presentations. 

“For centuries, scientists from the United States and Cuba have found ways to communicate and collaborate, even when politics has tried to get in the way. We’re better off when we put our minds together,” said Daniel Whittle, Associate Vice President at the Environmental Defense Fund and a lawyer, who has traveled to Cuba more than 100 times. He recounted EDF’s 24 year-long journey working with Cuba from hurricane readiness and coastal resilience to expeditions to study marine ecosystems. 

A behind-the-scenes look at the publishing process

Valda Vinson, executive editor for the Science family of journals, provided a behind-the-scenes presentation on the scientific publishing process, contextualizing where Science fits in the larger publishing ecosystem. In recent years, seven papers have been published in the Science family of journals with Cuban authors, including Ernesto Altshuler, a participant of the March meeting and an editor of the Cuban Journal of Physics. He was also featured in the 2015 special issue of Science about Cuba.

“I was delighted by the interest of multiple editors of Cuban publications in learning more about our publishing process,” Vinson commented after her presentation where she received multiple questions related to open science, artificial intelligence and the editorial process. “Journals play an important role in curating scientific content: they enhance diversity in science, and over the last decade, our submission pool has increased, and so has our geographic distribution,” she added. 

Kim Montgomery, AAAS director of international affairs and science diplomacy, said, “We want to highlight and strengthen ongoing collaborations between U.S. and Cuba, and foster potential areas of joint research that could benefit both countries,” when reflecting on the goals of the meeting. “By facilitating these conversations, AAAS plays a valuable role building relationships between the U.S. and Cuban scientific communities, which we look forward to continuing.”