July 14th, 2010
Experts show advances in nanotechnology in the country
Participants reveal applications in medicine, engineering and technology
Members from 15 countries meet at Hotel Ramada Plaza Herradura in Heredia
Best techniques for transporting drugs into the body, produce plastics and build waste organic materials, are some of the news that hundreds of experts will reveal for the XII Latin American Symposium on Polymers for the first time, takes place in our country.
The activity takes place from Tuesday until Friday at the Ramada Plaza Herradura, Heredia, where about 500 researchers and scholars of nanotechnology and materials will share their experiences and findings in the various fields where applied.
The symposium coincides with the X Iberoamerican Congress on Polymers. Both events bring together researchers, teachers and students from 15 countries, including Uruguay, Peru, Chile, USA, Japan, Turkey, Portugal and Costa Rica.
The activity is organized by the Laboratory of Polymers and the School of Chemistry, both from National University and National Nanotechnology Laboratory (Lanotec) of the National Center for High Technology (CENAT).
According to Jose Vega Baudrit, director of Lanotec, conducting this meeting in the country is particularly important given the Government’s interest in promoting the use of nanotechnology and its applications.
“In this conference we value the relationship between the academic and research side, there is both plenary and thematic conferences, plus workshops and more private meetings with investigators,” said Vega.
Renowned experts. Nanotechnology is the set of science and techniques to the study of materials at the nanoscale level, that is, a billionth of a meter, to work with atoms and their molecular structures and to investigate the handling and production of materials, tools, Structures and systems that scale.
Through these techniques, it is possible to study polymers, which are macromolecules that comprise the field.
In his opening speech, the expert Hyoe Hatakeyama, from Japan, spoke yesterday about the use of biomass waste to obtain products of higher added value.
Hatakeyama has worked since the eighties, through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in nanotechnology research in the country. In his research he has worked with pineapple waste, sugarcane, coffee and bananas.
The conference was supported by the National Council of Rectors (CONARE), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MICIT), the National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (Conicit), the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Costa Rica, Specialty Polymers Group and the New Materials Group, the latter two in Spain.
