Ten-year funding commitments from the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) to programs at Cornell University, as announced June 30 by Gov. George E. Pataki, will help the university's basic-research and technology-transfer efforts in the life and material sciences to emphasize regional economic development, as well as business and job creation.

The governor also announced a new name and enhanced mission for Cornell's 20-year-old New York State Center for Advanced Technology (CAT) in Biotechnology with a 10-year, $1 million per-year commitment to the redesignated Center for Life Science Enterprise at Cornell University.

In addition, Cornell researchers will be active participants in the Future Energy Systems CAT awarded to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) by focusing efforts in the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) on research and development and more job opportunities in fuel cells, "smart displays" and "smart lighting."

"Economic development and technology transfer have always been fundamental goals of the CAT, along with supporting new initiatives in basic research," said Stephen Kresovich, director of the Life Science CAT at Cornell, "and we're proud of our record. More than 200 patents and 28 companies have grown out of this targeted research." Kresovich pointed to a well-known example: The so-called "gene gun," which was invented by Cornell scientists, developed with support from the Cornell CAT and originally manufactured by a New York start-up company on the way to becoming one of the standard tools in biotechnology.

Kresovich said the gene gun "and many other examples highlight the increasing commitment of Cornell faculty members to link cutting-edge research with regional economic development. In addition, significant credit should be given to Margaret Arion [executive director of Cornell CAT], who has served with the center since its inception and has provided the program with a continuing vision and energy."

As the Cornell CAT shifts emphasis to economic and workforce development, basic research funded by innovation grants will continue to be a critical part of the mission, in order to provide new "platform technologies" that R&D specialists can cultivate in the marketplace, explained Arion. She noted one requirement of the NYSTAR designation of university-based CATs -- that institutions must show matching funding (from corporate, governmental and institutional sources) and those sources will help support basic research, she said.

Said Russell W. Bissette, M.D., executive director of NYSTAR: "Cornell University's Center for Life Science Enterprise will be an extremely important component of the state's high-technology economic development efforts. With the research in the life sciences, enabling sciences and agricultural sciences being done at this center, coupled with technological research in a wide range of areas, Cornell will be a key partner in helping create a vibrant high-technology-based economy for New York state."

At RPI, the Troy-based institution that will partner with both Cornell and Brookhaven National Laboratory on the Future Energy Systems CAT. The CAT's director, Om Nalamasu, said: "Our focus on technology commercialization will reduce the time it takes for ideas to move from the lab to the marketplace, help retain and create new jobs in New York state, increase incentives for energy companies to relocate in New York and effectively position us to expand our collaborations with the federal government on important energy research initiatives."

Cornell's part of the RPI Future Energy Systems effort will focus on three fields: fuel cells and the hydrogen economy, with a high-throughput search for new materials in the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Fuel Cell Institute; smart lighting to make light sources adapt to circumstances and applications; and smart displays, based on semiconductors called OLEDs, for organic light-emitting diodes.

All three fields already have engendered collaborative research relationships with major companies that employ workers in New York -- such as General Electric, Eastman Kodak and General Motors. And the CAT program will enable Cornell to work with smaller ventures, as well, according to Patrick Govang, director of industrial partnerships at Cornell's Center for Materials Research. "This support will make us better able to develop product ideas and solutions, offer technical assistance to nurture innovative ideas, provide product evaluation and testing and offer programs to help educate the workforce," Govang said.