The average salary of the center’s workers is $81,000
$4.5 billion worth of ‘Excellence’
There was a good deal of skepticism when former Gov. George E. Pataki and legislative leaders announced in 2001 that the University at Albany would become the state’s new Center of Excellence in nanotechnology, which involves the ability to manipulate matter at the atomic scale.
But since then, the facility has grown remarkably. Nearly 1,800 people work here now — sent by companies such as Sematech, IBM, Tokyo Electron, Sony, Toshiba and AMD. They work in a collaborative research environment, aided by college students who attend SUNY free.
Spin-off companies have emerged in the region, and local high schools work with the center. More than 100 patents were born here, and the growing facility and its intellectual property crammed onto 25 acres are valued at $4.5 billion.
The average salary of workers here — expected to hit 2,500 by next year — is $81,000.
It has not come cheaply for state taxpayers.
The state has spent $800 million on the facility, including the $300 million Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer announced last year.
By comparison, Buffalo’s bioinformatics center, led by the University at Buffalo, has received $52 million in capital funding from the state. And state money for operating expenses will slip this year.
University at Albany officials say it has taken far more than state money to get the nanotech facility to its present position. Alain E. Kaloyeros, the center’s leader and its most savvy marketer, calls it the “perfect storm” of government, university and industry alliance.
When the state announced its centers of excellence, the initial state funding called for $50 million for Albany and $65 million for Buffalo, Kaloyeros recalls.
“Buffalo was handed the golden opportunity in 2001. I’m disappointed it hasn’t translated,” he said, noting that his center relied less on a traditional academic model and more on business innovation.
Last year, the Albany center was named the nation’s top college for nanotechnology, beating out such schools as Cornell and the University at Michigan.
On a recent tour, a worker tapped some buttons on an unimpressive- looking device that on the inside performs state-of-the-art lithographic work. Its price for state taxpayers: $65 million.
Down the hall, leading chip companies are housed in one of several large, adjoining clean rooms, their workers dressed in special outfits to limit the spread of dust and other particles. The work here is leading to new advances in the semiconductor industry. But it also has applications for health care — one scientist is working on a device on the skin to monitor glucose — as well as the energy and transportation industries and the military.
Companies lured to the Albany center said the state’s role and dollars have been critical. Prior to the Albany center, it would have “been really a stretch” for IBM to ever partner with its competitors and the state in a research facility it did not own outright, according to Bill Rozich, the top site executive for IBM’s team of researchers.
“This model allows us to continue our research in New York State in a very competitive mode,” he said. “This has been built, is owned and run by the state. That takes a significant burden off a company that wants to do research.’’ — Tom Precious
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