In an event that signals the global outreach of the University of Pennsylvania, five delegates from Cuba visited Penn’s Singh Center for Nanotechnology to meet with University leaders and explore the translation of research to the marketplace. 

The visitors included counselors from the Cuban embassy and Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart, scientific advisor to the state council and vice president of The Academy of Sciences of Cuba. 

Castro Díaz-Balart, son of former President Fidel Castro, helped introduce nuclear power to Cuba in the 1980s and has created a nanotech research and development center in southern Havana. 

The representatives from Cuba met with Steven Fluharty, dean of the School of Arts & Sciences and the Thomas S. Gates Jr. Professor of Psychology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience; Dawn Bonnell, vice provost for research; Kathleen Stebe, deputy dean for research in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Richer & Elizabeth Goodwin Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; Larry Gladney, associate dean for the natural sciences and a professor in physics and astronomy; and Mark Allen, the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering, professor of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics and the inaugural scientific director at the Singh Center. 

"Given recent initiatives that are drawing our countries closer together, this was a wonderful opportunity to welcome our esteemed guests from Cuba," said Allen. "It was enlightening to learn about Cuba's plans for nanotechnology research and development, and we also enjoyed the opportunity to showcase Penn's capabilities in this important emerging area." 

Castro Díaz-Balart expressed interest in Penn’s research in nanotechnology as it relates to medicine and how the University’s interdisciplinary culture allows for collaboration to thrive in an environment like the Singh Center, a space which is ripe for cross-disciplinary partnerships, encouraging researchers and others invent new devices and successfully get them into the marketplace. 

The Cuban visitors toured the Singh Center, including the Nano-Bio Interface Center, the Quattrone Nanofabrication Facility and the Nanoscale Characterization Facility.