Basque president pays a visit to Stanford
Basque President Patxi López with Provost John Etchemendy.
BY ADAM GORLICK
Patxi López, president of the autonomous Basque government, caught a glimpse of Stanford research on Wednesday.
He arrived at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where he spent the morning learning about the 2-mile-long linear accelerator and the Linac Coherent Light Source, a laser that produces pulses of X-rays millions of times brighter than any other light source in the world.
After his tour and speaking with Director Persis Drell and other SLAC officials and physicists, López met with Provost John Etchemendy.
Etchemendy, who is of Basque heritage, spoke with López about Stanford's connection with the high-tech industry and how the university nurtures the research and ideas that become the foundation for new businesses.
López was joined by his wife, Begoña Gil, and an entourage that included other Basque government officials, educators and reporters. They toured the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford and the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab, and López took a short spin in Junior, an artificially intelligent robotic Volkswagen Passat.
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of three provinces in northern Spain.