The building was funded by a bond package approved by the Legislature. Construction started in August 2002 and was completed this summer. The move gives needed space to the Lab for Surface Science & Technology, an interdisciplinary group that includes professors and students from chemistry, physics, electrical engineering, biological engineering and other majors.

The advanced clean room and the equipment it houses, valued at another $20 million to $30 million, bring nanotechnology resources to Maine, opening cutting-edge research to Maine students and companies, said Robert J. Lad, professor of physics and director of the lab.

Part of the funding for the lab came from the Maine Technology Institute, which gave the school a $500,000 cluster enhancement award to purchase a pattern generator, a machine that makes the masks that delineate the layout of a micro-component, layer by layer. Having such a machine is key to research, where numerous redesigns go into making prototypes, said Lad.

As part of the MTI award, the lab promised that 40 percent of the products researchers work on will be in collaboration with industry partners.

"Having access to this kind of facility is something they really couldn't afford," said Lad. "Up to this point, it's a very expensive outlay of money to get involved in this kind of facility."

Several companies, including Fairchild Semiconductor, BAE Systems and Abbott Laboratories, donated equipment for the new facilities, Lad said.

The lab is already working with several Maine companies, including BiODE Inc. of Westbrook and Orono Spectral Solutions, Lad said. Lab researchers also are doing a lot of work with Jackson Labs in Bar Harbor and Maine Medical Center Research Institute in Scarborough.

"I think the key thing for them is if they are able to have this facility work and be able to tap into the commercial sector, what they can actually do is get into the pipeline for next-generation products that those commercial companies may be interested in doing but haven't been able to get their arms around," said Kerem Durdag, BiODE's chief operating officer. "The ability for the University of Maine to partner with the commercial community is dependent on a way to make high-quality goods. It's absolutely crucial."

Durdag said the ability to do high-end research and development at the lab was critical, as was the ability to do some limited-run manufacturing work. In the past, to do short runs of a product, a Maine company had to leave the area, going perhaps as far as California.

Inside the clean room are several microenvironments where work can be done in settings that are even more pristine than in the larger clean room. Work being done in the lab includes projects on sensor arrays, microneedles, micromirrors, integrated sensors, microelectro- mechanical systems (commonly called MEMS) and microfluids (putting biological cells into computer chips for study).

Janet Yancey-Wrona, director of the state's Office of Innovation, noted that the school was able to attract two prestigious scientists to work in the lab, and they brought their own federal grants with them. Lad said bioengineer Rosemary Smith and biochemist Scott Collins are leaders in the nanotechnology area and bring several million dollars in funds to do microfluids and microneedle work in gene sequencing.

"We're pushing the envelopes of design," said Lad.

Thirty-five graduate students and some undergraduate students are working in the lab, said Lad. Their education in the top-rated facilities is preparing a work force for the economy of the future, he said. In the past, schools would send their graduates out into the real world to get hands-on experience. That's changed, he said.

"This kind of facility gives state-of-the-art experience," said Lad.

Lad said the goal is for industry and the lab to partner in the future and bring in even more grants for research and development.

Nanotechnology has in recent years become a buzzword, the next big thing. In reality, there is no one field of "nanotechnology," it's a science that cuts across numerous disciplines, from biology and chemistry to microelectronics and other fields.

Congress allocated $961 million to the National Nanotechnology Initiative, a multi-agency federal group, in 2004, with which it funded projects and research nationwide. The NNI has asked for $982 million for 2005 for nano research. According to a recent report by M.C. Rocco, senior nanotechnology adviser to the National Science Foundation, it's estimated that state, local and industrial investment in nanotechnology in 2003 was roughly 1.5 times the amount funded by the NNI, putting that investment at about $1.3 billion.
"This content originally appeared as a copyrighted article in the Saturday, October 16, 2004 edition of the Portland Press Herald and is used here with permission."