With a space of 2,755 m2, the five-floored building will be home to the Center for the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, the Aquaculture Biotechnology Center and the Soft Matter Center. The cost of the building construction amounted to about CLP 5,000 million.
In a context in which Chile only invests 0.39 of its GDP in research, the President of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Dr Juan Manuel Zolezzi, highlighted the importance of this new space that will contribute to research and development in the country.
“This is one of the state-of-the arts buildings in Chile with regard to university research and it is an incentive for new researchers to continue innovating in key areas for the development of Chile,” he said. He added that Universidad de Santiago de Chile is a leader in technology transfer.
Senator Guido Girardi, who heads the Challenges for the Future. Science, Technology and Innovation Commission of the Upper House, valued the work done by public universities.
“These universities take charge of basic sciences on their own. Particularly, Universidad de Santiago has had the wisdom to connect basic sciences to the problems of the country and to generate innovation to solve these problems,” he said.
A few months ago, Dr Girardi visited the Center for the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (Cedenna, in Spanish) where he met with professionals in this significant research field. After the opening ceremony he congratulated the university on the new facilities.
The centers
Representatives of the centers that will occupy the new facilities expressed their satisfaction with the architectural configuration of the building that facilitates research development.
Dr Francisco Melo, Head of the Soft Matter Center that gathers together scientists in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Engineering, said that the new space will offer endless opportunities for a better science development and for positioning the university at an international level.
For her part, Dr Dora Altbir, Head of the Cedenna, said that the possibility of bringing together scientists from different fields will allow a more active collaboration than the one that the university has now.
Eugenio Spencer Ossa, Head of the Aquaculture Biotechnology Center (CBA, in Spanish) said that the new building will allow to further scientific research and contribute to improve domestic industrial production, like salmon farming.
Architecture
The Rector Eduardo Morales Santos Research Building, with a total surface of 2,755.15 m2, is located in the central campus of the university. Its design is a geometric reinterpretation of the heritage buildings of the institution designed by the architects Héctor Valdés, Fernando Castillo Velasco, Carlos García Huidobro and Carlos Bresciani and built between 1957 and 1967. The building’s name is a tribute to the first democratically-elected university president after the dictatorship.
Translated by Marcela Contreras
