RESEARCH ON NANOPHOTONICS

Translation to english:

Javier Aizpurúa: Hello, I am Javier Aizpurúa, scientist researcher, physicist and I work in the Materials Physics Center of the University of the Basque Country and of the Conceil, where I lead the Nanophotonics research line.

Usually the nanoscience and the nanotechnology are involved in the study of the matter at a very very small scale, around 10, 100, 1000 atoms, and at that scale there are some very special interactions. In our case, we study the interaction between light and matter at that scale, at the nanoscale, that is why we talk about "nanophotonics".

In principle, we perform a very basic research. In principle our research does not have to have a direct application, and that is all right, but besides, in our case the nanophotonics have a lot of technological applications, for example, just to mention some of them, in medicine the metallic nanoparticles, if they are introuduced to the human body and they are illuminated with infrared light, if these particles are localized close to a tumor, then they are able to kill the tumor by heating.

After I did my undergraduate studies in Physics at Zaragoza, I started my Ph.D. thesis here, at the Basque Country University, under the advice of Pedro Miguel Echenique and Alberto Riba Goa, and as soon as I ended my thesis I started my two postdoctoral stays, one at Sweden and other one at USA, and in 2004, when the last of the two postdoctoral stays ended, the Gipuzkoa Council, through a reincorporation program, offered to me the possibility to come back at Donostia; I chose to come back from USA and then I started  my research on nanophotonics here, at the DIPC, in Donostia, where I started a research group that has been growing.

I liked a lot the mathematical description of the processes that occur in the world, in the nature; I also liked a lot the biology, but at last I decided to study physics. At the very beginning there is a vocational point, but then, as the time runs, one passes from the vocation to the job, to the performance of a normal job. However I think this is not a normal job, this is a special job, because we do this job with a lot of pleasure. We spend a lot of hours, even on sunday we are waiting for some result, sometimes this job is a little bit altruist. Besides, in the public organizations this job is funded by the society; in that sense, this job has responsabilities to the society, to turn toward the society and to explain what we do, to explain that our job is good for the social development, and it is good for the science and the technology development. In that sense, this job is a special job.

I realize that the general population, my friends, the people in general, consider positive this job; people realize that what we do helps to the society development by means of sophisticated techniques. Thus, I think this job is well considered by the society. Economically, we are in our own environment, and with respect to other areas I think we are, in general, well paid.

I would highlight that one of the most negative things of this job is the anxiety and the stress generated by the obligation to obtain always new results, in practice, each month or maybe each two months.

The science is a completely creative process, one needs sophisticated techniques, mathematics and so on, but at last inspiration is what one needs, it is like art, thus to ask vanguard results each two months is something like to ask to Leonardo DaVinci to paint a masterwork like Monalisa each two months.

There is, among the most positive aspects of our work, the self-realization feeling that occurs when one does this job, in this case the physicist job. One is looking for results, new findings, and that is psychologically great. Besides, you are exposed to an international atmosphere, you are always in contact with physicists from other cultures, from very different cultures; in some way, that opens your mind, develops your personality, and that is a very positive aspect of our work. Also to realize that one is part of a collective work, just like the science is, even if each one gives to it a personal interpretation, that is an important self-realization feeling.