Russia has the technology

With investors in Russian for the international nanotechnology forum Business RT spoke with Heinz Kundert, President of SEMI Europe about plans to promote technology in Russia.

HK:  “I haven’t fully understood the project, so I cannot tell you exactly is in their mind.  But what I can tell you is that I have been working with Russian technology for 30 years, and I have seen the history of technology in Russia, and the technology is excellent. So, there is a lot of stuff here. A lot of patents, a lot of brilliant people.  The problem is to translate that into brilliant products and applications.  To build up an industry.  That’s the bottleneck, and I think the Russian government has understood that, and they want to build up a strong industry.  So, it’s not technology, it’s not science, forget about that in Russia, it’s about building an industry.  You have a wonderful cluster in Russia, this is Zelenograd.  Zelenograd has manufacturing of semiconductors, has technology, has SME’s, so small and medium enterprises, has an excellent university, has a lot of institutes.  So this is the cluster, for semiconductor manufacturing, is a model.  And it takes a very long time.  Russia has everything, but no time.”RT:  Why hasn’t nanotech captured the public imagination HK:  “You cannot see that, and that’s the problem, it’s very difficult to explain that to the consumer, when they buy a product, what is nano – is it good, is it bad? – nano is part of everyday life in all our gadgets, applications, in our car, in a telephone.  Wherever you go, nano is part of our life.”RT:  What sort of nano products can people see in the shops?HK:  “It is coming more and more, and also it is energy saving, reducing the amount of materials used.  It’s improving your performance.  There is a variety of applications and products.”