Hay Festival Segovia 2022

The discovery by the Russian-British scientist, Sir Konstantin Novoselov, of graphene, won him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010. His discovery brings us a material that has numerous applications in our daily lives (in thermal and fire-resistant clothing, for example) and it has made him known around the world. He is currently working with the Centre for Advanced 2D Materials at the National University of Singapore, where he carries out research on intelligent materials that are able to mutate to adapt to certain requirements. However, Novoselov is not the kind of scientist who never leaves the laboratory. Quite the opposite, he pays great attention to the geopolitics of technologies and is an advocate against the concentration of all stages of production in a single country, a trend that is growing after the pandemic. He says that all of us become poorer in this way, and his position is that a region is strong not when it leads in a particular technology, but when it is able to educate, attract and retain talents able to design various technologies, since it is not yet clear what will be necessary for our future.

Novoselov will talk to Diego del Alcázar Benjumea, Executive Vice-president of IE University and the man in charge of this university’s technological immersion.

With simultaneous translation from English to Spanish and vice versa

What do a refugee, a high-level politician and a carbon atom on the other side of the world have in common? All of them share the same pattern of existence. The prominent conceptual and multimedia artist Kate Daudy, who has worked on major international projects; and the scientist and artist Sir Konstantin Novoselov, winner of the 2010 Novel Prize for Physics, have been working since 2017 on a humanitarian art and science project whose goal is to explore the ways in which Everything Is Connected and to invite the public to reflect on these connections. Daudy and Novoselov, who will undertake an artistic intervention as part of the Hay Festival, believe that it is worth considering interconnection when assessing our behaviour: our lives are what our thoughts make them. They will talk at this event about their project, which has involved collaboration with different NGOs and institutions linked to humanitarian work in the context of aid and development cooperation.

They will talk to Javier Gila, chair of the Aida: Ayuda, Intercambio y Desarrollo association, who has been working with them on the project.

With simultaneous translation from English to Spanish and vice versa