What
is the Texas Nanotechnology Initiative?
TNI was started 2002 by Jim
Von Ehr, founder, chairman & CEO of Zyvex
Corporation in Dallas and Glenn Gaustad. It’s
a 501(c)(6) non-profit corporation, a consortium
of industry, universities, government and venture
capitalists whose mission is to establish Texas
as a world leader in the discoveries, development
and commercialization of nanotechnology.
What
kind of oganizations belong to the Texas Nanotechnology
Initiative?
Universities such as Rice;
UT, Dallas; UTSW Medical Center; SMU; Texas
A&M, UT Austin, and others. And firms such
as Nanotechnologies, Inc.; Carbon Nanotechnologies;
Applied Nanotech, Inc., etc.
Yours
is a statewide, Texas organization, with connections
nationally and overseas; why was Dallas chosen
as the site for nanoTX '06?
Dallas is a great
choice. The city really wants the event held
at the Dallas Convention Center and has shown
it is willing to work hard in making the event
a huge success. Dallas is a robust, forward
thinking city that has strong ties with the
U.S. Department of Commerce and wide appeal
internationally. And just look at all the major
corporations in the D/FW area that are banking
their future on nanotech, like Lockheed Martin,
ExxonMobil, TI, Abbot Labs; even Trammell
Crow has a nanotech division. And unlike New
York and similar cities, Dallas is very event-friendly
when it comes to the chore of actually putting
on a conference/Expo of this size. Plus Dallas
has a respectable concentration of Nobel laureates
and a lot of local university activity in the
field of nanotech.
What
kind of "university activity" are
you referring to?
Well, Dr. Greg
R. Dieckmann, UTD Chemist, is one of a trio
of researchers who recently won a $1.1-Million
Grant to Study Nanoparticles and will be assisted
in his research by other faculty members associated
with the university’s Bio-Nanotechnology
Group, including Dr. Ray H. Baughman of the
UTD NanoTech Institute and Chemistry Department,
Dr. Rockford K. Draper of the Molecular and
Cell Biology and Chemistry Departments, and
Dr. Inga H. Musselman and Dr. Paul Pantano,
both of the Chemistry Department.
Also UTD and UTSW Medical
Center are teaming up in the study of "Molecular,
Computational and Systems Biology. That means
biologists heretofore labeled as molecular,
cellular, organic or evolutionary specialists
are finding the real frontiers in integrating
these disciplines into a knowledge greater than
the individual components. The Doctors are Alfred
Gilman, Bryan Smith, Dean Sherry, Rust Reid,
Hobson Wildenthal, and we hope to have vital
results from their work reported at the nanoTX’06
conference. Then there is SMU and UT Arlington
establishing strong nanotechnology studies.
Is
this the first such conference held in Dallas?
I guess the first
of this scope, but there have been two others
that were held in the Dallas suburb of Richardson.
March 6 through the 8th, 2002, NanoVentures
conference was held at a Richardson hotel to
great success and kudos from the nanotech community,
drawing 400 very enthusiastic attendees. And
in 2003 NanoVentures repeated. Now the nanotech
community of Texas is ready for a major event
as is held in other cities around the world.
How
can members of the community participate in
the event?
There are sponsorships
still available by contacting the nanoTX’06
business office, 214-513-9567. Related industries
can secure space in one of the vital exhibit
areas of the Expo: Defense/Homeland Security/Aerospace,
BioMed Technology/Life Sciences, or Energy/Chemical/Environment.
Or individuals can buy a conference pass when
they go on sale next year.
What
can we expect from the event, what can we see
and learn?
if you have any
need to know the Who’s and How’s
of nanotechnology, you’ve come to the
right place. Whether business, industry, techni/science
or as individuals, the promise of NanoTechnology
is now profoundly effecting our future. The
high level knowledge and inside information
being disclosed under one roof at nanoTX ’06
is cutting edge across all fields. To not be
on the cutting edge is to fall behind. The National
Science Foundation reports that by 2015 nanotech
will be a stampeding “$1Trillion (part
of) industry” and need 800,000 new scientists.
“The way you manage and exchange information
and the way you learn as a company—those
are your only sustainable advantages,”
says Robert Shapiro, chairman of Monsanto. And
David Kline writes in Wired magazine “the
future may become a wonderland of opportunity
only for the minority among us who are affluent,
mobile, and highly educated. And it may at the
same time become a digital dark age for the
majority of citizens—the poor, the non-college
educated, and the so-called unnecessary.”
So come to nanoTX ’06 to learn, to see
how it is all coming together and where you
can belong. There’s a promise of tomorrow
at this event, the business of nanotechnology.
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