Materials Science I think it is very booming, in fact the scientific production in Spain is higher than the global average, and 3 % are in materials , superior even to areas like biology or medicine and a fraction thereof significant occurs in the CSIC. We are still behind countries like Germany or France , but we are gaining ground because our rate of increase is much higher and much lower than our funding .

Are you feeling the budget cuts ?

Not yet, but is expected to take place. Materials The National Plan has been a great success since its introduction , in recent calls have not noticed any cuts but it is foreseeable that in the next if it exists, even in those already granted but not yet started may be any delay in the breakdown . Anyway you have to be optimistic and pull savings.

Materials Science is an area of great technological application , have you noticed an increase in patents or partnerships with businesses?

That’s part of the policy of CSIC, the action plan in which we are immersed places great emphasis on the transfer of the investigation. In some areas we have excellence, we are big publishers, have a high quality scientific production , we publish a lot and in the best journals . Is a change of policy at the Centers for posting less but better quality items . The CSIC also want to get to the industries, technology transfer really do . To share , patents and even create new businesses, and also make this known .

Do you think it necessary scientific outreach from research centers ?

It is essential , one of the major problems currently Materials Science is for students of our colleges do not know they exist, are not aware that material is chemistry, physics and even biology. We carry this message to the universities , get them interested in the Science of Materials, which does not differ at all from other areas in terms of quality , production, goals, etc . But this not only affects us , now this problem affects virtually all research centers in developed countries , so try to lure potential scientists who are in countries like India , China or Iran.

In his opening speech spoke about the 50th anniversary of the laser and work in stochastic lasers could you say they differ from normal laser ? Why are they interesting ?

There are several aspects that should be highlighted but one of the most notable features of stochastic lasers do not emit a collimated beam as ordinary lasers that since they have a cavity bounded by two mirrors emit only in the direction perpendicular to the mirrors while stochastic lasers emit isotropically , ie in all directions. This could be an advantage depending on applications , such as screens and displays, there is a diode that emits toward the viewer but whose brightness is limited. If we were able to make each pixel out a laser, would be much brighter , but if we do it with ordinary lasers could be observed only from just in front. If we did with lasers stochastic , as they emit in all directions , we could have very bright , very bright and also much viewing angle. There are also applications in biomedicine , to take pictures of cells , cancer treatments and the like. It can cover many different topics , like the laser did not apply its origin and now found everywhere, the same could happen with stochastic lasers .

Photonics is an unknown by the public but is also booming could you tell us a bit more about it ?

There are projects whose objectives are still far from achieved, but others such as the application of photonic methods in biomedicine for treating diseases that today is already an example of this is treatment with metal nanoparticles that absorb light and heat destroy molecules cancer , the nanoantennas , the production of single photons to achieve quantum cryptography, etc. .

Think you can get to replace the electronics?

Since it began to use optical fiber to transmit information to our homes, they considered the possibility that new addition to our computers. This is a hotly debated topic , and probably the final answer is not just photonics, but is a mixture of photonics and electronics. It can serve to implement the speed, but especially heat dissipation as the chips are now so small and compact that generate a large amount of heat and this is a big problem , however , photons are not heated , so light that the accused would avoid this problem.

Source:SINC