28 september 2005
Newspaper: Diario de Navarra

US professor Henry Smith is the President of Principia

The Government of Navarre, through Sodena, is examining the constitution of a company to work on nanotechnologies. In order to do this it is negotiating with the US company Principia, whose President is the Director of the Nanostructure Laboratory of MIT, Henry Smith, who visited Pamplona last Monday.

Sodena, a publicly owned venture capital company, wants to drive research into the nanometer, i.e. one-thousandth of a micron. Sodena has been negotiating over the last few months with Henry Smith, a US expert in nanotechnology. Sodena has been studying a contract with Mr. Smith and his company Principia Technology Group to examine the possibility of cooperation with the Government of Navarre to develop this science in Navarre.

Last Monday Mr. Smith travelled to Pamplona on his first visit to Europe. He was invited by Sodena to see for himself what Navarre is doing in the field of technology, and also to get to know the venture capital company for himself. According to Jesús Zabalo, a senior Sodena manager who played host during the visit, by the end of the year the Government of Navarre plans to set up a company that would be controlled by Sodena but without shutting the door to other potential partners. "The objective of the visit is to get to know each other and convince MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to examine the potential that Navarre has in nanotechnology", Zabalo explained.

Principia is a US-based company that works with 20 collaborators (of which three are in Spain), many of them belonging to MIT. As Smith explained, "Apart from offering consultancy, we would seek to participate in the project's capital by investing. We are interested in associating with Sodena. Principia contributes the experience and the knowledge of the experts of the MIT".

In his whistle-stop visit to Navarre, Smith visited the Centre of Applied Medical Research (CIMA), the National Centre of Renewable Energies (CENER) and the Navarre Industry Association (AIN) accompanied by managers from Principia and Sodena. At present, there are about 15 people working on nanotechnologies in these centres, which Smith described as places with "very capable and qualified people".

A great lover of art, he also found time to fit in a visit to the Oteiza Museum.

Interview with Henry Smith, director of nanostructures at MIT
“We living beings are proof of nanotechnology ”

If I had to choose, I would go for the conversion of energy and its storage or achieving plastics that could be disintegrated

Henry Smith (New Jersey, 1937), a father of three with five grandchildren, is considered a world authority in nanotechnology.

This is your first visit to Europe. Why Navarre?

Because it is a very advanced region within Europe with a long history of industrialisation. The people of Navarre are hard-working and innovative. And there is commitment to innovation on the part of the region's Government and Universities.

What possibilities do you see in Navarre?

To be successful in nanotechnology there has to be a long-term commitment. Navarre will probably set the pace in energy, new techniques of energy conversion, hydrogen and medicine. We have some ideas in these fields but we do not know which ones will be successful.

Why is nanotechnology so important?

We are living proof of nanotechnology. Inside any living being the most important functions -energy, movement, inheritance- take place on a nano scale. This is why nobody can deny the importance of nanotechnology. All of us who are interested in the future of technology should be researching in this area. The only way of seeing practical applications, however, is to participate in research. Nanotechnology is about processes on a very small scale, the nanometer in the millionth part of a millimetre. With nanotechnology you can link up disciplines that have been separate, such as physics, materials science, chemistry, biology. When you study processes on this scale the frontiers between them are no longer so clear.

The USA is ahead of Europe in this field. Is it a matter of resources?

Most of the money in the USA is in the wrong place. Twenty-five years ago politicians were not interested in science and technology, they thought they were the domain of crazy researchers who lived in ivory towers. There was no interest in investing in science. One day, however, they discovered Silicon Valley, an economic miracle. Now all politicians want the next Silicon Valley to be in their own backyard. Politicians now understand that that there is a link between scientific research, crazy professors and economic development. This is why money for R&D is distributed according to political criteria.

That may be the case, but more money is spent over there.

Every year they allocate 4,000 million dollars to nanotechnologies and half of that comes from venture capital funds.

What should Europe do?

Quality is not proportional to the amount of money that is spent. I am not so concerned about the amount of money but the long term.

What would be the great breakthrough through nanotechnology?

The applications are never obvious. However, if I had to guess I would say that the way forward is through the conversion of energy and its storage, the artificial synthesis of new materials for medicine and solutions to the problem of how to make plastics that can be disintegrated. Another area is construction materials made from carbon, which are lighter.