Clívia Sotomayor Torres, born in Chile, is the new general director of the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL). She succeeds Lars Montelius, who held these positions for the past eight years.
The opening ceremony is scheduled for this Friday, Iberian Science Day, at 9:00 a.m., at the INL, a laboratory created by the governments of Portugal and Spain. The ceremony will be attended by the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Elvira Fortunato, and the president of the Foundation for Science and Technology – FCT, Madalena Alves.
In an interview with TSFClívia Sotomayor Torres reveals that she has been following the INL journey since 2010, when she visited the laboratory for the first time.
Today, in a different position, the physicist arrives with the desire to have leadership focused on the 473 employees and, simultaneously, modify the INL strategy, so that the laboratory is once again on the world’s lips.
“These are the people who generate ideas and carry out research,” he emphasizes, adding that their opinions and experiences must be valued and incorporated, “organically” into the “laboratory culture.”
The future will mainly involve Artificial Intelligence in which, for the moment, there are only “specific working groups” and the focus on the Physics of Quantum Technologies. Sotomayor Torres intends for the INL to have a “very active role in the Portuguese program” and, in the future, access to a quantum computer.
One of the biggest challenges that the new general director confesses to having is related to the “obsolescence” of the equipment used in ‘Micro and Nano Manufacturing and Electron Microscopy’.
“We are in the process of choosing priorities and understanding which equipment we can replace. At this moment, it would be impossible to find 50 million euros just to replace this equipment, however, without this infrastructure, INL cannot play an ambitious role in relation to the future,” he says.
The person in charge draws attention to the fact that new equipment also requires specialized technicians and specific conditions, such as temperature. Clívia Sotomayor Torres reveals, however, that she has already received indications that the most delicate situations can be overcome in four years.
At a time when many researchers are “overwhelmed by administrative rather than scientific issues”, the INL wants to offer “time” so that new ideas can be generated. The team is “optimizing processes and support systems so that it is possible to save at least two to three hours.”
Currently, the INL has 405 researchers of 31 nationalities with 238 funded projects, 104 of which are still ongoing. This corresponds to a 2023 budget of €8.4 million for projects to be implemented over the next four years. Within the scope of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), the INL has 16 projects budgeted at around 50 million euros.
The reinforcement of collaborations with universities and other entities on both sides of the Iberian Peninsula, and beyond, will also be the object of dynamism so that they “are no more than a piece of paper.”
At this time the deputy director general of the INL is not yet known. TO TSFClívia Sotomayor Torres says she believes the decision could be announced in mid-March 2024.
Source: TSF
