On his Twitter account, the president described Dr. Silva Taboada as one of the greatest Cuban scientists and naturalists of all time, founder of the National Museum of Natural History.

Condolences to his relatives and to the Cuban scientific community, Diaz-Canel noted on that social network.

With a long and prolific scientific career of relevant contributions to Cuban mammalogy, cave fauna and Cuban natural history museology, Taboada recently received the 2021 National Cultural Heritage Award.

He was a founding member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, and a member of the American Museum of Natural Sciences in New York, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2016, according to Cubadebates website.

He was also a member of the Commission for the Survival of Species of the World Conservation Union, the Speleological Society of Cuba and was curator emeritus of the National Museum of Natural History.

In 2007 he received the “Lazzaro Spallanzani” Award for his life’s work in the study of bats, granted by the American Society for the Research and Conservation of Bats, United States.

In 2011, he was appointed “Researcher of Merit” by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, and in 2012 he was elected “Honorary Member” of the Cuban Academy of Sciences.

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