Shodan
May 3, 2007, 2:02 AM
Big cash from micro tech
Aim is to attract top nanotech talent
Jason Markusoff
The Edmonton Journal
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
http://media.canada.com/290cac5f-206a-453b-b3f1-aef7d176af64/nano.jpg?size=l
The National Institute for Nanotechnology, on the University of Alberta campus.
CREDIT: Rick MacWilliam/Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON - The Stelmach government will pump $130 million into nanotechnology research in Alberta, trying to position the province as a global leader in the revolutionary field.
The money, spread out over five years, will go towards attracting more top scientists, scholarships and product development, senior government sources said Tuesday.
Premier Ed Stelmach's announcement today will bolster Edmonton, which houses the National Institute for Nanotechnology on the University of Alberta campus. The city has also sprouted a fledgling cluster of companies eager to harness nanotechnology discoveries into commercial and industrial products.
The science deals with individual atoms and molecules long thought too small to be manipulated by humans -- 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. Being able to design and fabricate materials on a nano scale has allowed researchers to power computer memories with carbon-molecule tubes instead of silicon chips, and pioneer specially structured particles that help extract oil from the oilsands more efficiently, by using less water.
The $52.2-million federal nanotechnology complex opened up in Edmonton only last summer, but various university experts had already been studying drastically shrinking the size of electrical transistors, and developing the "lab-on-a-chip" that can do genetic diagnosis faster and more cheaply than conventional DNA tests.
The new provincial funds will help Edmonton's centre -- and other Alberta institutions -- in the competitive global recruitment drive for top nanotech minds. In February, it took $4.5 million from the university, Ottawa and province to lure Dr. Richard McCreery, a leading chemist, from Ohio to Edmonton.
The Institute for Nanotechnology has plans to boost its research and technical staff to 200, up from 80.
Today's announcement marks the province's biggest provincial commitment in this scientific field since it helped launch the project to build the federal institute in 2001.
Stelmach has been promising to include nanotechnology as part of his push to foster a bigger high-tech industry in Alberta, to diversify the provincial economy beyond natural resources and farming.
"It's seen by many as the stepping stone to the next major revolution in global technology," the premier said in a March speech to the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce.
The government has also formed an experts panel to recommend by this summer how Alberta can boost its venture capital and technology commercialization.
To date, the Alberta government has focused its grants on nanotechnology projects in energy, health and technologies such as wireless communication.
© The Edmonton Journal 2007
Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
Aim is to attract top nanotech talent
Jason Markusoff
The Edmonton Journal
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
http://media.canada.com/290cac5f-206a-453b-b3f1-aef7d176af64/nano.jpg?size=l
The National Institute for Nanotechnology, on the University of Alberta campus.
CREDIT: Rick MacWilliam/Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON - The Stelmach government will pump $130 million into nanotechnology research in Alberta, trying to position the province as a global leader in the revolutionary field.
The money, spread out over five years, will go towards attracting more top scientists, scholarships and product development, senior government sources said Tuesday.
Premier Ed Stelmach's announcement today will bolster Edmonton, which houses the National Institute for Nanotechnology on the University of Alberta campus. The city has also sprouted a fledgling cluster of companies eager to harness nanotechnology discoveries into commercial and industrial products.
The science deals with individual atoms and molecules long thought too small to be manipulated by humans -- 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. Being able to design and fabricate materials on a nano scale has allowed researchers to power computer memories with carbon-molecule tubes instead of silicon chips, and pioneer specially structured particles that help extract oil from the oilsands more efficiently, by using less water.
The $52.2-million federal nanotechnology complex opened up in Edmonton only last summer, but various university experts had already been studying drastically shrinking the size of electrical transistors, and developing the "lab-on-a-chip" that can do genetic diagnosis faster and more cheaply than conventional DNA tests.
The new provincial funds will help Edmonton's centre -- and other Alberta institutions -- in the competitive global recruitment drive for top nanotech minds. In February, it took $4.5 million from the university, Ottawa and province to lure Dr. Richard McCreery, a leading chemist, from Ohio to Edmonton.
The Institute for Nanotechnology has plans to boost its research and technical staff to 200, up from 80.
Today's announcement marks the province's biggest provincial commitment in this scientific field since it helped launch the project to build the federal institute in 2001.
Stelmach has been promising to include nanotechnology as part of his push to foster a bigger high-tech industry in Alberta, to diversify the provincial economy beyond natural resources and farming.
"It's seen by many as the stepping stone to the next major revolution in global technology," the premier said in a March speech to the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce.
The government has also formed an experts panel to recommend by this summer how Alberta can boost its venture capital and technology commercialization.
To date, the Alberta government has focused its grants on nanotechnology projects in energy, health and technologies such as wireless communication.
© The Edmonton Journal 2007
Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
