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 | March 2nd, 2011 Getting our Groove Back in Manufacturing Innovation: Nanomaterials, Green Nanonotechnology and Policy Uncertainty Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI The U.S. is losing its advanced manufacturing base and also stifling new technology innovation with increasingly wrongheaded and costly regulatory barriers. This is part of the reason nanotechnology has not been the commercial and job-creating success it should be. A focused enabling regulatory approach to green nanotechnology is a possible means of "bending the nano innovation curve up". Read the Whole Article |
| March 19th, 2010 Precautionary Principle: 1, Innovation Economy: 0 Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI It happened quietly: antimicrobial silver is now the first nanomaterial to be governed by irrational and vague fear, with the tragic consequence that new US innovators are shut out of the market by the EPA while previously (to the clampdown) certified foreign suppliers continue to ship without interference. This is a sad time for US innovation, manufacturing and jobs at the hands of an EPA that has chosen not to consider benefits vs. costs. The following is adapted from testimony given to the US International Trade Commission on March 12, 2010. Read the Whole Article |
| August 4th, 2009 Funding for Early Stage Nano Companies - Is this the Darkest Hour Just Before the Dawn? Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI Angel groups and specialized boutique investment firms for whom a $20M exit can be a home run may be part of the answer, and we're starting to see some interesting things being tried. But if we're to see a renaissance in manufacturing and the related broad high-wage skilled job base that it brings, some lasting solution must be found to the problem of how to profitably make the risky and patient investments in the just-post-research stages of what will become the next transistor or the next laser. Read the Whole Article |
| June 11th, 2009 Nano Week in Seattle - Tuesday June 9, NHSF Summary Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI The Nanotechnology Health and Safety Forum made a strong finish - a summary of conclusions follows. ISO TC 229 Joint Working Group I appears to have solved the naming issue related to nano-objects and nanostructured materials. Read the Whole Article |
| June 8th, 2009 Nano Week in Seattle - Monday June 8 Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI The ISO meetings are off and running, and the Nanotechnology Health and Safety Forum is a standing-room-only smash hit. Read the Whole Article |
| June 7th, 2009 Nano Week in Seattle - Dispatches from the ISO TC 229 2009 Plenary Meeting Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI Representatives of the worldwide nanotechnology community are gathered in Seattle this week for the ISO TC 229 (nanotechnologies) 2009 Plenary Meeting, hosted by ANSI and the U.S. delegation, led by U.S. NNCO director Dr. Clayton Teague. Your humble correspondent will be providing short daily dispatches during the course of the week. Read the Whole Article |
| January 25th, 2009 Nano and The New Era: the Best of Times or the Worst of Times? How Green Nanoscience will Help Decide Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI In an unprecedented national environment where science funding is going up and business confidence is plummeting, green nanoscience research is as promising - and as necessary - as ever. Two new nanotechnology approaches to advanced thin films with breakthrough performance and reduced environmental footprint are highlighted. Read the Whole Article |
| October 19th, 2008 Nanomaterials-Biological Systems Interactions - Addressing the Complexity Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI It is becoming apparent that the complex task of understanding nanomaterials interactions with biological systems must be decomposed and worked on collaboratively at both the ab initio and heuristic/behavioral levels. An analogy with 60 years of progress in semiconductor chip design and simulation is suggested. Read the Whole Article |
| July 1st, 2008 Sowing Nanophobia to Reap Regulation? Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI With the recent publication of a particular MWCNTs-in-mice experiment, and pundits' various comments thereupon, we're back where we always are on the "unknown risks" of nanotechnology. Do we embrace innovation or fear it? Do we seek to build communities and business networks based on knowledge and trust, or do we imagine that a comprehensive scheme of prohibitions and penalties will lead to better outcomes? The answer is by no means an anarchical free-for-all (we're way past that), but rather collaborative and interdisciplinary mechanisms for reducing uncertainty that are as innovative and forward-looking as nanotechnology itself. Read the Whole Article |
| May 21st, 2008 NNI Reauthorization, "Nanomanufacturing" and U.S. Competitiveness Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI We have a bill, HR 5940, with some very nice attention paid to commercialization, industry-research institution partnerships, technology transfer and "nanomanufacturing". The latter term deserves some reflection in light of the U.S. competitiveness issues it evokes. Read the Whole Article |
| March 1st, 2008 DC Report 2008 - Nano 2.0 and the Year of the ReAuThorization Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI The 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act is five years old and up for re-authorization. Significant progress and maturation in commercialization and organization of the EHS task have set the stage for higher expectations - and another five years of crucial work to contribute to human progress and maintain American economic leadership. Read the Whole Article |
| December 7th, 2007 From Presumptive Moratoria to Predictive Models Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI The conversation on nanotechnology EHS concerns is maturing, and in a much better way than many feared. This points the way to an outstanding opportunity to collaboratively advance science, human health and the economy. Read the Whole Article |
| October 4th, 2007 Nanomanufacturing - How to Make it Lean and Green Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI The high-performance nanomaterials industry is going to need to improve its "e-factor" in order to economically penetrate a wide variety of markets, and at the same time deliver on its promise of environmental benefit. Here is a glimpse at some ONAMI research and commercialization efforts in this direction. Read the Whole Article |
| July 26th, 2007 Musings on Risk and Reward Salience in America, and what they might have to do with Nanotechnology Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI Relative perceptions of opportunity and risk with nanotechnology will depend on socioeconomic status. It is likely that the comparatively affluent and comfortable people engaged in nanotechnology research and policy making are more attuned to risk - and less attuned to opportunity - than the population at large. Read the Whole Article |
| June 4th, 2007 Why Nanotechnology Research Investment and Commercialization Must Come First Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI The history of the corporate objectives developed by the founders of the Hewlett-Packard Company teaches a wise and logical lesson about priorities and investment that the United States should internalize before it's too late. Read the Whole Article |
| May 1st, 2007 Nanoscience to Commercialization - a Developing Regional Experience Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI ONAMI was founded to grow research and commercialization in the state of Oregon, focusing on select areas of nanoscience and microtechnologies where we believed a competitive advantage existed. A critical component of this effort is the ONAMI gap fund, which has been operating for about seven months, with promising initial results. Read the Whole Article |
| February 5th, 2007 DC Report February 2007: The Two Big Nano Action Items, or Why Commercialization and EHS Go Together Like Peanut Butter and Chocolate Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI The perennial two big discussion topics on nanotechnology in policy circles are commercialization and EHS risk assessment. There are compelling reasons why these should be thought of and addressed in both policy and investment simultaneously. The "green nanotechnology" approach is analogous to concurrent development as practiced by high tech industry (or to the felicitous merger of peanut butter and chocolate as practiced by confectioners). Read the Whole Article |
| December 20th, 2006 Moon Shots, Golf Swings and Safe, Green Nanotechnology Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI The prediction by various publications and organizations that 2007 will be the year that the discussion of nanomaterials safety hits the mainstream media appears to be on track. We believe it is essential that "nano EHS" research not be limited to assessment of potential risks, but also focus on methods for optimized design of nanomaterials in order that human and environmental safety be assured at the same time as performance and cost objectives are met. Read the Whole Article |
| October 30th, 2006 Thinking Critically about Nanotechnology EHS Concerns Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI To the extent there are negative public perceptions about nanotechnology safety, they are not based on facts and data (perceptions often aren't) and are similarly unlikely to be altered by facts and data. Critical thinking by practitioners and potential regulators of nanotechnology (nanomaterials development and application, in large part) should result in both EHS research with realistic expectations and prudent day-to-day decision making as the promise and benefits of molecular-precision materials science unfold. Read the Whole Article |
| September 25th, 2006 Nanoscience, Pioneering Discovery, and Oregon Skip Rung President and Executive Director, ONAMI Robert D. "Skip" Rung President and Executive Director Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) This column, my first foray into blogging, will be updated roughly each month. In another daily web column I read, it was recently observed that producing your own blog is about as special as producing your own (not so precious bodily fluid), and not much more likely to be of interest to anyone else. So you'll need to tell me if I beat these odds - I don't want to waste my time or yours. Since the popular use of the term "nanotechnology" began, Oregon hasn't gotten a great deal of respect. We typically don't make it onto the "nano top 10" lists for academic centers, venture capital, or ‘industry' (per Small Times' methodology - described in their Sept/Oct 2006 issue). I think this situation is changing, but in any case overlooking Oregon was always a mistake - especially in the industry and closely related talent pool categories. In my inaugural installment, I'll try to make this point. In future columns, I'll address other topics of a less provincial nature that interest me, such as my view of nanotechnology safety & health; nanotech, the physical sciences and American competitiveness; and the challenges of building great new businesses on nanoscience foundations. Read the Whole Article |
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