Parent Praxair Inc. The Buffalo facility has worked with UAlbany's thin film center for two years. Albany's center is one the best-equipped around, Albaugh said. At the nano level, scientists are working with materials and devices literally a thousand times smaller than a human hair, which equals one micron in width. At that level, researchers have an enormous amount of control over precision, properties and functions.
Nanotechnology is a nascent industry with undetermined potential.
States are responding to that federal challenge. Similar in research and concept, the institutes will be formed with the California universities at Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, and will seek partnerships with the private sector to bring technology to commercialization. Experts project the nanotechnologies developed will drive all industries over the next five to 10 years. Nationally, employment will exceed 3.5 million by 2004.