Fidel Castro’s son visits the ORC’s new centre for nanotechnology

The son of former Cuban president Fidel Castro, Professor Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, visited the University of Southampton yesterday to explore the new state-of-the-art research complex which is currently being built for the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) and the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS). 

Professor Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart was keen to see the University’s new centre for nanotechnology so he could take back some ideas for a similar research facility in Havana. 

A nuclear physicist, Professor Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart is currently Scientific Advisor for the Cuban Government. During his visit to the ORC he was also able to meet Professor Nikolay Zheludev, an ORC expert in the field of nanophotonics and the son of the scientist who supervised Professor Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart's studies in Moscow. 

‘It was a great privilege to welcome Fidel Castro to the ORC,’ comments Professor David Payne, Director of the ORC. ‘He was very impressed by the design of our new clean room complex and the research opportunities that the new building will offer for the future. I am flattered that his visit could inspire ideas for a new science complex in Havana.' 

The ORC's new building, scheduled for completion in mid-2008, has been specially designed to provide flexible interdisciplinary space for world-leading research in nanotechnology and photonics to be carried out.

Posted by Marketing Officer, on 28 March 2008.