Tag Archives: Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart

International news bits: Israel and Germany and Cuba and Iran

I have three news bits today.

Germany

From a Nov. 14, 2016 posting by Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton for The National Law Review (Note: A link has been removed),

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) recently published an English version of its Action Plan Nanotechnology 2020. Based on the success of the Action Plan Nanotechnology over the previous ten years, the federal government will continue the Action Plan Nanotechnology for the next five years.  Action Plan Nanotechnology 2020 is geared towards the priorities of the federal government’s new “High-Tech Strategy” (HTS), which has as its objective the solution of societal challenges by promoting research.  According to Action Plan Nanotechnology 2020, the results of a number of research projects “have shown that nanomaterials are not per se linked with a risk for people and the environment due to their nanoscale properties.”  Instead, this is influenced more by structure, chemical composition, and other factors, and is thus dependent on the respective material and its application.

A Nov. 16, 2016 posting on Out-Law.com provides mores detail about the plan (Note: A link has been removed),

Eight ministries have been responsible for producing a joint plan on nanotechnology every five years since 2006, the Ministry said. The ministries develop a common approach that pools strategies for action and fields of application for nanotechnology, it [Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research] said.

The German public sector currently spends more than €600 million a year on nanotechnology related developments, and 2,200 organisations from industry, services, research and associations are registered in the Ministry’s nanotechnology competence map, the report said.

“There are currently also some 1,100 companies in Germany engaged [in] the use of nanotechnology in the fields of research and development as well as the marketing of commercial products and services. The proportion of SMEs [small to medium enterprises?] is around 75%,” it said.

Nanotechnology-based product innovations play “an increasingly important role in many areas of life, such as health and nutrition, the workplace, mobility and energy production”, and the plan “thus pursues the objective of continuing to exploit the opportunities and potential of nanotechnology in Germany, without disregarding any potential risks to humans and the environment.”, the Ministry said.

Technology law expert Florian von Baum of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com said: “The action plan aims to achieve and secure Germany’s critical lead in the still new nanotechnology field and to recognise and use the full potential of nanotechnology while taking into account possible risks and dangers of this new technology.”

..

“With the rapid pace of development and the new applications that emerge every day, the government needs to ensure that the dangers and risks are sufficiently recognised and considered. Nanotechnology will provide great and long-awaited breakthroughs in health and ecological areas, but ethical, legal and socio-economic issues must be assessed and evaluated at all stages of the innovation chain,” von Baum said.

You can find Germany’s Action Plan Nanotechnology 2020 here, all 64 pp.of it.

Israel and Germany

A Nov. 16, 2016 article by Shoshanna Solomon for The Times of Israel announces a new joint (Israel-Germany) nanotechnology fund,

Tsrael and Germany have set up a new three-year, €30 million plan to promote joint nanotechnology initiatives and are calling on companies and entities in both countries to submit proposals for funding for projects in this field.

“Nanotech is the industry of the future in global hi-tech and Israel has set a goal of becoming a leader of this field, while cooperating with leading European countries,” Ilan Peled, manager of Technological Infrastructure Arena at the Israel Innovation Authority, said in a statement announcing the plan.

In the past decade nanotechnology, seen by many as the tech field of the future, has focused mainly on research. Now, however, Israel’s Innovation Authority, which has set up the joint program with Germany, believes the next decade will focus on the application of this research into products — and countries are keen to set up the right ecosystem that will draw companies operating in this field to them.

Over the last decade, the country has focused on creating a “robust research foundation that can support a large industry,” the authority said, with six academic research institutes that are among the world’s most advanced.

In addition, the authority said, there are about 200 new startups that were established over the last decade in the field, many in the development stage.

I know it’s been over 70 years since the events of World War II but this does seem like an unexpected coupling. It is heartening to see that people can resolve the unimaginable within the space of a few generations.

Iran and Cuba

A Nov. 16, 2016 Mehr News Agency press release announces a new laboratory in Cuba,

Iran is ready to build a laboratory center equipped with nanotechnology in one of nano institutes in Cuba, Iran’s VP for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari said Tuesday [Nov. 15, 2016].

Sorena Sattari, Vice-President for Science and Technology, made the remark in a meeting with Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, scientific adviser to the Cuban president, in Tehran on Tuesday [November 15, 2016], adding that Iran is also ready to present Cuba with a gifted package including educational services related to how to operate the equipment at the lab.

During the meeting, Sattari noted Iran’s various technological achievements including exports of biotechnological medicine to Russia, the extensive nanotechnology plans for high school and university students as well as companies, the presence of about 160 companies active in the field of nanotechnology and the country’s achievements in the field of water treatment.

“We have sealed good nano agreements with Cuba, and are ready to develop our technological cooperation with this country in the field of vaccines and recombinant drugs,” he said.

Sattari maintained that the biggest e-commerce company in the Middle East is situated in Iran, adding “the company which was only established six years ago now sales over $3.5 million in a day, and is even bigger than similar companies in Russia.”

The Cuban official, for his part, welcomed any kind of cooperation with Iran, and thanked the Islamic Republic for its generous proposal on establishing a nanotechnology laboratory in his country.

This coupling is not quite so unexpected as Iran has been cozying up to all kinds of countries in its drive to establish itself as a nanotechnology leader.

First ever Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Symposium in English-speaking Caribbean

A July 12, 2014 news item on Nanowerk heralds this new International symposium on nanoscience and nanotechnology,

The ‘International Symposium on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology’ will be hosted at The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine [in Trinidad and Tobago], from July 15-17, 2014. The symposium, focused on the frontier areas of science, medicine and technology, is the first of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean and is organised jointly by CARISCIENCE, The UWI and the University of Trinidad and Tobago. The symposium consists of a Public Lecture on Day 1 and Scientific Sessions over Days 2 and 3.

This international symposium is important and ground-breaking since these are widely viewed as revolutionary fields. Nanoscience and nanotechnology are considered to have huge potential to bring benefits to many areas of research and application and are attracting rapidly increasing investments from governments and businesses in many parts of the world.

Despite developments in nanoscience and nanotechnology, the Caribbean as a region has not been involved to the extent that more advanced countries have. As such, this symposium aims to provide a stronger focus on the impact and implications of developments in nanoscience/nanotechnology for stakeholders within the Caribbean region, including researchers, academics, university students, government and policy makers, industry partners and the wider public. The symposium will explore various topics under the following themes:

Nanotechnology for Sustainable Energy and Industrial Applications
Nanotechnology for Electronic Device and Sensor Applications
Nanotechnology in Biology, Medicine and Pharmaceuticals
Nanoscale Synthesis, Nanofabrication and Characterization

A July 11, 2014 UWI news release, which originated the news item, provides details about the speakers and more,

An impressive line-up of leading, globally recognised experts from world-class international and regional institutes awaits, including the Public Lecture titled “Science and the Elements of Daily Life,” to be delivered by world-renowned scientist, Professor Anthony K. Cheetham FRS, University of Cambridge, Vice President and Treasurer of The Royal Society. Additionally, the Keynote Address at the Opening Ceremony will be delivered by The Right Honourable Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada, with responsibility for Science and Technology in CARICOM.

Speakers at the scientific sessions include Professor Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart (Scientific Advisor to the President of the Republic of Cuba and Vice President of The Academy of Science, Cuba); Professor Frank Gu (University of Waterloo, Canada); Professor Christopher Backhouse (former Director of the Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, Canada); Professor G. U. Kulkarni (JNCASR, India) and Professor Masami Okamoto (Toyota Technology Institute, Japan).

Students, teachers, academics and the wider public, are all invited and encouraged to attend and use this unique opportunity to engage these leading scientists.

The free Public Lecture is scheduled for Tuesday July 15, 2014, from 5pm-7.30pm, at the Daaga Auditorium, The UWI, St. Augustine Campus. [emphasis mine] The Scientific Sessions take place on Wednesday and Thursday July 16 and 17, 2014, from 8.30am-5pm, at Lecture Theatre A1, UWI Teaching and Learning Complex, Circular Road, St. Augustine. There will also be a small Poster Session to highlight some research done in the areas of Nanoscience and nanotechnology in the Caribbean.

All attendees (to the scientific sessions) must complete and send registration forms to the email address janicejoseph63@hotmail.com by Sunday, July 13, 2014. Registration forms may be downloaded at the Campus Events Calendar entry by visiting www.sta.uwi.edu/news/ecalendar.

A registration fee must be paid in cash at the registration desk on Wednesday July 16, 2014, Day 2, at the start of the scientific sessions.

  • Academic and non-academic:  TT$ 600
  • Graduate student: TT$ 150
  • Undergraduate student: no cost

For further information on the symposium, please visit the Campus Events Calendar at www.sta.uwi.edu/news/ecalendar

I wish them all the best. They seem (judging by the institutions represented) to have attracted a stellar roster of speakers.

Cuba weighs in with a nanotechnology strategy

Here’s something about Cuba and nanotechnology which comes from a Sept. 19, 2012 news item on the  Cuban News Agency (ACN) website,

Cuba considers nanotechnology a strategic field to achieve competitiveness and future sustainable development, given its intellectual potential.

The statement was made by the scientific advisor to the Cuban Council of State, Doctor Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart as he lectured participants, on Tuesday [Sept. 18, 2012], at the opening of the 4th International Seminar on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, at Havana’s Conventions Center.


Doctor Castro Diaz-Balart said that some Cuban universities, research centers and scientific networks have been exploring these promising disciplines since the last decade and they have achieved basic knowledge and some results.

These entities are particularly under the Higher Education Ministry said the expert, who noted that given the social impact and benefits for health and biotechnology, nanomedicine and nano-biotechnology constitute focal points for the national development of nanoscience, without disregarding the significant fields of energy and environmental studies.

The Doctor announced that the first stage of the Cuban Center for Advance Studies (CEAC) will be ready next year. …

Dr. Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart is one of Fidel Castro’s sons. (For anyone who’s not familiar with the Fidel Castro and Cuba story, I suggest starting with this Wikipedia essay.) I found out a little more about Diaz-Balart on his biography webpage on the Festival of Thinkers website,

Dr Castro Diaz-Balart is the Scientific Advisor of the State Council, Republic of Cuba, a position he has held since 2003. Prior to this position he has held a number of important roles in Cuba, including Chief of Scientific and Technological Activities in Cuban Ministry of Basic Industry, the Executive Secretariat of Nuclear Matters and Executive Secretary of the Atomic Energy Commission of Cuba.

He obtained his MSc. (Hon) in Nuclear Physics, from M. V. Lomonosov State University, Moscow, in 1974. He earned his PhD in Physical-Mathematical Sciences in the I. V. Kurchatov Atomic Energy Institute in Moscow.

He obtained a MSc. equivalent degree in Strategic Planning and Higher Management from the Russian Council of Minister Management Institute in Moscow, and obtained a MSc. degree in Project Management from the School of Industrial Organization (EOI), Madrid, Spain.

In 2000, he obtained a Doctor of Sciences degree from the Higher Institute for Nuclear Sciences and Technology (ISCTN), Havana, Cuba.

There’s also an April 21, 2012 news item on the Dominican Today website describing him,

Diaz-Balart, a renowned man of science in his country and in Latin America, surprised everyone with his humility. He is the author of a dozen books that, according to Dominican minister of Culture, “honor our Fair,” whose program emphasizes scientific topics for the first time.

I have digressed. This is about Cuba and its nanotechnology strategy and I look forward to hearing more about nanotechnology research in Cuba.