Employ giant possibilities through a global nano-economy

Rashid Bashir

One of the only constants is change. But as we look back on the first five years of this still-new century, one change stands out - both for its potential impact on the quality of our life and Indiana's economy. It's the big ideas from the smallest of building blocks: nanotechnology.

The National Science Foundation predicts a global market for nanotech products and services could top $1 trillion by 2015, and up to 1 million jobs related to nanotech in the United States are expected to be created by then.

Nanotech in the food industry alone is estimated to leap from $2.6 billion a year today to $20.4 billion in 2010, according to a recent study by Helmut Kaiser Consultancy. Much of that will focus on detecting possible contaminants and prolonging the shelf life of food.

Federal funding for nanotech research, meanwhile, has quadrupled from about $270 million in 2000 to $1.08 billion in the current fiscal year, with about 4,000 government-funded research projects under way.

Not that long ago, nano was considered the stuff of science fiction.

Mihail "Mike" Roco, the National Science Foundation's senior adviser on nanotechnology, recalls that during the 1990s, some universities shied away from even using the word "nano" in the names of new research buildings.

Fortunately, Purdue University had the vision to step forward. And now, Indiana is a leader in the nano race.

Leveraging private donations, state and federal leaders placed Indiana at the forefront by investing in the new $58 million Birck Nanotechnology Center in Purdue's Discovery Park on its West Lafayette campus.

Birck came online last fall, assembling the work of 23 campus labs into an 187,000-square-foot building unlike any other in the nation. Its clean rooms protect the materials that are smaller than one 10-millionth of an inch - or 100 nanometers - as they are assembled to form new products. By comparison, a grain of sand is about 200,000 nanometers wide.

Even before its doors opened, the promise of Birck already had already generated $40 million in research dollars and attracted many leading researchers from around the nation.

Purely academic? Hardly.

Look for it to drive job creation and economic development in the Hoosier state as this technology spins off its commercial applications. In fact, the spinning has already begun.

Nanotechnology research worldwide already generates tens of billions of dollars worth of products each year, such as new data-storage technologies and advanced industrial coatings. But that's nothing compared with what's coming.

Just as antibiotics, the silicon transistor and plastics affected nearly every aspect of society in the second half of the 20th century, nanoscale science, engineering and technology will transform the 21st century.

Sean Murdock, executive director of the NanoBusiness Alliance, a trade organization in Chicago, is right when he says nanotechnology will define the future: "Nanotechnology isn't going to change the world overnight, but it's going to have a dramatic and defining impact on our nation's economy in the next 10 years."

Is Indiana ready to embrace this change? The potential is limited only by our imagination, but we must move wisely and swiftly, forging ahead in this drive to create a Midwest Nano Valley.

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