Trustees back UALR’s nanotechnology center
Posted on Friday, January 27, 2006
University of Arkansas System trustees agreed Thursday with little discussion to officially establish a center for nanotechnology research and innovation at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Officials say the center, which is exploring collaboration with other colleges and universities in Arkansas, has the potential to boost the state's economy and create start-up businesses.
Nanotechnology is a relatively new scientific field in which materials are examined and altered on an atomic level. It involves high resolution microscopes and other tools that allow scientists to "see"and manipulate atoms and molecules.
UALR's next step is to finalize an agreement with the Arkansas Department of Economic Development for a $ 5. 9 million grant. Gov. Mike Huckabee released the $ 5. 9 million to the agency in August ; it was appropriated by the Arkansas Legislature to the department for UALR.
"It's sitting there and our representatives have been working on the formal agreement,"UALR Chancellor Joel Anderson said. "We've been proceeding, knowing the money would come through."
The agreement must provide "safeguards for the ongoing related research and projects involving the study and application of nanotechnology,"according to Act 2112 of 2005.
Brad Greenway, a technology development manager for the agency, said a meeting is scheduled Monday to finish drafting the agreement.
The center UALR expects to open will include a concentration on the commercialization of materials and products that result from nanotechnology research. Most innovation in the field has focused on the basic science of nanotechnology, officials say.
"What we want to do is bridge that gap,"said David Belcher, UALR provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. "Come up with usable patents that will attract businesses and start-up companies in Arkansas for economic development."John Ahlen, president of the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority, said that is what will distinguish UALR's center.
"The thrust there is pretty much economic development as opposed to basic research,"he said.
Ahlen believes the center will place the university in a position to provide a talented work force for the field, on top of new innovations.
"It seems they're right on the threshold of commercializing a product for which there is a large market..."he said. "It's an incentive for companies to relocate here."
The center at UALR will start a new chapter in the state's venture into nanotechnology.
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has for years focused on nanotechnology.
Last summer, the Fayetteville campus hosted the state's first Nanotechnology Science summit. In the fall, the University of Arkansas and the University of Oklahoma received a six-year, $ 7. 8 million grant from the National Science Foundation. UA has jointly operated the Center for Semiconductor Physics in Nanostructures with the University of Oklahoma in Norman for five years. At that center, researchers use machinery to create nanostructures 1, 000 times smaller than red blood cells.
"The effort at the Fayetteville campus is built around materials,"said Collis Geren, vice provost for research and dean of the graduate school at the Fayetteville campus. "We actually make new materials for photonics and electronics and so forth. It's as simple as atom by atom."
Officials at both UALR and the Fayetteville campus say they don't believe the centers would be pitted against each other.
Ahlen agreed.
"They're not competitive,"he said. "They should be collaborative."
But regardless of their nature, some faculty at Fayetteville were initially upset that UALR was selected to receive the $ 5. 9 million appropriation.
Geren said the tensions have passed, but that they may have been present because Fayetteville researchers felt their technology needs were being overlooked.
A super-high resolution microscope the Fayetteville campus uses was purchased in the late 1970 s, he said. UALR is expected to acquire a new microscope that serves the same purpose.
"There were some hard feelings,"Geren said. "But they're all gone now."
Geren said he suspected his faculty would like to have access to some of the high-tech instruments the new UALR center will likely offer.
Belcher believes other campuses will also want in on the action. It is one way UALR expects to support the center financially - by arranging fees that would be charged in some scenarios for use and services.
"The fees won't cover everything,"he said," but it will put some money in the pot."
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