from the coast-to-coast dept.
According to an Associated Press report in the New York Times, IBM will invest more than $100 million to help create a state Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics at the State University of New York's Albany campus, (Note: Access to the NY Times site is free, but requires registration.)
New York Gov. George Pataki and company officials announced the contribution on 23 April 2001. Pataki said the state would contribute $50 million for the center, which is expected to initially employ 100 technicians and 400 scientists. The center will create the only university-based, 300-millimeter computer wafer prototype facility in the world, and provide laboratory and clean room space for researchers, incubator space for high-tech company spinoff ventures and a work force development program, officials said. IBM has announced plans to build a $2.5 billion computer chip fabrication plant in East Fishkill, located south of Albany.
Read more for additional information on the New York program, and similar efforts in California. New York State is engaged in a number of efforts to foster nanotechnology-related research and development there. In January, Pataki announced an initiative that would establish the state-sponsored Center for Excellence in Nanoelectronics at SUNY Albany (see article in Foresight Update #44). Pataki has been pursuing the concept of centers of excellence as a means of capturing high-tech jobs for New York state. The centers bring together public and private funds at university settings. The program is somewhat similar to Californiaís Institutes for Science and Innovation, which includes the California NanoSystems Institute (see article in Foresight Update #43).
