This initial eNewsletter contains two spotlights that emphasize the balance between cutting-edge research in nanomaterials and business perspectives on how to get innovative research to market. In our first spotlight, we highlight the Materials Research Institute at Penn State. This lab is one of the premier nanomaterials research institutions in the country. Alternatively, our second spotlight features an interview with one of Pittsburgh’s thought leaders in nanotechnology commercialization, Dr. Robert Kumpf of Bayer MaterialScience. In this interview, he discusses why Pittsburgh is poised to become an epicenter for nanotechnology commercialization.

Finally, we have included links to upcoming events in nanotechnology and nanomaterials. If you wish to have your nanotechnology event or interesting topic highlighted, please contact me.

Enjoy the first eNewsletter, and welcome to the growing nanomaterials network in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Alan Brown, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center
Pittsburgh, PA

As public awareness of nanotechnology grows, there is an increasing need to describe it in terms non-scientists can understand. To help define this scientific breakthrough, Bob Kumpf, Chief Administrative Officer of Bayer MaterialScience LLC, reframes the common question, “What is nanotechnology?”

“It’s not a ‘what,’ but rather, a ‘how,’” Kumpf says. “Nanotechnology enables technology. It allows [us] to make things more efficiently, and to make them better.”

An excellent example of a nanotechnology enabling technology is Baytubes^®, multi-wall carbon nanotubes developed by Bayer MaterialScience. Baytubes^® are incredibly strong nanoscopic carbon tubes that enhance the properties of materials like plastics and ceramics to give them new capabilities, including electrical conductivity.

Kumpf further explains, “Nanotechnology impacts everyday things.” He describes holographic data storage media that can hold more than 400 times more data than standard compact discs due to nano-scale technology, and halogen-free flame retardant materials that utilize nano-additives to enhance the structural integrity of the material while allowing for improved recyclability.

Due in part to a $2 billion annual investment in nanotechnology by the U.S. government and industry, nanotechnology-based products and technologies are moving out of laboratories and into commerce. Says Kumpf, “What is intriguing to me is that the venture capital companies are now investing more and more into nano-based companies.”  

This development is promising for Pittsburgh, a city that hosts a diverse assortment of entrepreneurs and startup companies. Pittsburgh is home to major corporations with hundreds of years combined experience in materials, as well as world-class universities with outstanding science expertise to nurture this emergent technology. The city is well-poised for leadership in the burgeoning nanomaterials commercialization arena.

Pittsburgh is also home to the Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center (the Center), an organization, Kumpf feels, that exemplifies the open innovation principle in nanomaterials technology. He explains that partnerships are vital to advance nanomaterials research into commercial products, and the Center facilitates and supports these partnerships.

Kumpf also says the Center is critical to innovation. He explains, “Innovation is implementing new ideas to create value. A new idea is not an innovation unless it’s implemented, and the focus of the Center is to help implement new nanomaterial ideas to develop new products and processes.”