Midiel Marcos Mendoza, National Young Researchers Award 2025

“This award confirms for me that the path of rigorous, committed, and socially conscious research resonates and is useful far beyond the classroom.” These are the words of Midiel Marcos Mendoza, a professor at the Faculty of Pedagogical Sciences of the José Martí Pérez University of Sancti Spíritus, who received the 2025 National Young Researchers Award, granted annually around this time by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment to recognize the talent, creativity, and resilience of young scientists in Cuba.

Receiving the 2025 Young Researchers Award in the pedagogical sciences category is, personally, a profound source of professional and human fulfillment.

“It is not just an individual accolade; it represents recognition of a way of conceiving education as a transformative force for social development, especially in contexts of adversity like the one our country is experiencing.”

This annual award indicates that young scientists are also making their mark in the classroom and presents Midiel Marcos Mendoza with new challenges. “Professionally, this presents me with unavoidable challenges. The first is to live up to this recognition by delving deeper into lines of research that truly impact the improvement of the pedagogical process, especially in teacher training and the university-school-society connection.”

“The second challenge is to contribute to the training of new generations of researchers from within the region. And the third is to use this platform to advocate for a young, inclusive, and relevant science that responds to the needs of sustainable development through education.”