Sunday, June 04, 2006

Pitt Ranks #2 in Nanotech Research

Thanks to David Morgan at Proud Pittsburgh for calling attention to the fact that the May/June edition of Small Times magazine rated the University of Pittsburgh #2 in the nation in nanotechnology research.

Small Times cited the wide range of micro- and nano-tech research areas at Pitt and its several different research centers -- the Petersen Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering, the Swanson Center for Micro and Nano Systems, and the new NanoScale Fabrication and Characterization Facility.

Unfortunately, Pitt wasn't included in the top 10 universities on nanotechnology commercialization -- possibly because Pitt didn't respond to that portion of Small Times's survey. The same appears to be true of education and industrial outreach.

Also unfortunately, Pitt wasn't included in the lists of top universities based on peer rankings - it appears that more needs to be done to increase awareness of the nanotechnology resources that are available at Pitt. This could be significantly helped through the national Commercialization of NanoMaterials conference that will be held in Pittsburgh in September.

The Small Times survey just focused on university-based nanotech research and commercialization. As noted in an earlier post, one of the Pittsburgh Region's advantages in the nanotechnology area is the significant corporate R&D in nanotechnology taking place here through companies like Alcoa, Bayer, PPG, and U.S. Steel, which will hopefully be enhanced by the new Pennsylvania Nanomaterials Commercialization Center.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home