Nanotechnology refers to the ability to manipulate individual atoms and molecules, making it possible to build machines on the scale of human cells, or create materials and structures from the bottom up with novel properties.

Nanotechnology could change the way almost everything is designed and manufactured, from automobile tires to vaccines to objects not yet imagined.

Applications of nanotechnology are likely to include:

Information technologies such as quantum computing and computer chips that store trillions of bits of information on a device as small as the head of a pin.

Medical advances, including improved drug and gene delivery, biocompatible materials for implants and sensors for disease detection.

If the biotechnology industry is in its infancy, then the nanotechnology industry is still embryonic in many ways. There is plenty of research and development in the pipeline but commercial applications are limited.

The ultimate payoff for investing now is still years away. But that hasn’t stopped the investment from occurring.

The state of New York is heavily investing in the sector. That investment helped convince Evident Technologies to site its manufacturing facility in the Albany metro.

The facility, which opened last year, manufactures semiconductor nanocrystals, also known as quantum dots.

More than 200 workers are employed at the facility.

By making large quantities of these materials readily available, Evident Technologies is enabling a new set of innovative nanotechnology applications to be brought to the market, according to the company.

“We can satisfy foreseeable demand from any of our customers,” said Clinton Ballinger, president and CEO of Evident Technologies. “We have sufficient capacity to meet additional demands for a variety of applications that we and our partners will bring to market [in the future.]”

The state has provided numerous incentives to Evident Technologies, including a $125,000 follow-on equity investment from the Small Business Technology Investment Fund. Previously, the company received $400,000 from the fund.

The company is also eligible for up to $900,000 in additional funding from the New York’s Empire State Development.

Albany has become a focal point for nanotechnology, partially because of the University of Albany’s Center for Excellence in Nanoelectronics (CEN), a fully integrated technology deployment, product prototyping, manufacturing support and work force training resource for emerging companies.

CEN has implemented an educational program to train scientists, engineers and technicians to support the needs of the nanoelectronics industry. The state earlier this year also created the Center for Construction Trades Training (CT2), a work force training partnership for nanotech infrastructure construction trades.

CT2 is a partnership between the New York State Assembly, Arsenal Business and Technology Partnership and Albany NanoTech. With $6 million in seed funding, CT2 is designed to provide high-tech learning and skills development opportunities in emerging nanotechnology trades for graduates of technical schools in New York state.

CT2 helped convince M+W Zander to relocate its regional office from Boston to Albany. M+W Zander has designed and built a number of research and manufacturing facilities for clients focused across a spectrum of advanced technologies, including nanotechnology and nanoelectronics.

The company has about 70 employees in Albany and expects to create an additional 50 high-tech jobs by the end of the year.

University Research Is Essential

As with companies in other knowledge-based industries, nanotechnology companies are dependent on university research and development to provide a critical component.

The federal government is providing funding in the form of grants to colleges and universities to further research and development.

The National Science Foundation last year awarded UCLA a $17.7 million grant to establish the Center for Scalable and Integrated Nano-Manufacturing (SINAM). The center will combine fundamental science and technology in nanomanufacturing that will transform laboratory science into industrial applications.

SINAM will devise commercial nanomanufacturing tool designs, establish an industrial consortium to build strategic partnerships and address high-tech work force needs.

UCLA is joined by four other collegiate partners: the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University; the University of California, San Diego; and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

More than a dozen companies have already joined SINAM’s industrial consortium, and partnerships have been formed with several government laboratories.

SINAM has also built an international collaborative program involving academic and industrial nanotechnology groups in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

“A host of nanoscale mechanical devices that are being developed in labs across the country have not been able to reach their potential because we lack the materials and tools to manufacture them in a cost-effective way,” said Xiang Zhang, director of SINAM and a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UCLA. “We want to bridge the gap between scientific research and economically feasible manufacturing solutions.”

The National Science Foundation also awarded a $70 million grant to 13 universities to form a network to study nanotechnology.

The National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN) is an integrated nationwide system that supports research and education in nanoscale science, engineering and technology.

The network, led by Cornell University, began operations in January. It will operate for five years and represents an advancement in the nation’s ability to push the boundaries of nanoscience, said Lawrence Goldberg, a senior engineering adviser for the National Science Foundation.

Each site involved in the network has a specific task that complements the rest of the organization.

The network will help create a work force skilled in nanotechnology and the latest laboratory techniques, said Viola Vogel, director of the Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Washington, one of the universities tapped for the project.

“This is the largest nanotech network that has ever existed,” Vogel said.