Economic Spotlight:
“The Next Big Step in the Evolution of Science”
An interview with Kelly Kordzik, president of the Texas Nanotechnology Consortium
Kelly Kordzik is president of the Texas Nanotechnology Initiative, a statewide consortium focused on bringing nanotechnology companies,researchers and funding together to encourage the rapid commercialization of nanotechnology in Texas. Nanotechnology involves understanding, manipulating and building structures from individual atoms and molecules to produce everything from lighter, tougher materials for manufacturing to new medical treatments. Fiscal Notes recently asked him to discuss the future of this exciting new realm of knowledge and its possible implications for the state.
Fiscal Notes: Could you give us a brief overview of what nanotechnology is, and why it’s becoming important?
Kordzik: Nanotechnology is essentially mankind doing what nature has been doing for eons: creating things from the atom on up to produce things with whatever properties are desired. It’s the ability to engineer the properties we want into materials at the atomic and molecular level. It will be the next big step in the evolution of scienceand engineering.
FN: So it has the potential to change everything?
“Texas doesn’t lag behind California or Massachusetts or anybody else in nanotech research within our universities. We’re at the forefront.”
Kordzik: Just about. It cuts across all industries. It will affect everything. If you’re in nanotechnology, you’ll be at the forefront of every industry there is. It will be the next wave in our economy, probably for the next hundred years. We’re going to be able to look at everything we’re manufacturing and say, “How can we make it better?”
FN: Where are we likely to see the greatest initial effects for the Texas economy?
Kordzik: It will affect Texas’ major industries significantly. We’re a big producer of electronics, for instance. We have a very significant health care and biotech industry. All of those will be positively and hugely affected by nanotechnology science and engineering.
Microprocessor design and engineering, for example, will start incorporating more and more developments resulting from nanotechnology, such as using carbon nanotubes to create smaller and smaller circuits and to handle the heat that will be generated every time we shrink computer chips. We still have to power them, and you’re just creating more and more heat in a smaller space. Nanotech will help solve both the miniaturization issue and theheat issue.
In the health care industry, we’re already starting to see development of targeted drug delivery in tiny structures called “nanoshells” to treat diseases such as diabetes and cancer.
FN: What can nanotech offer the energy industries?
Kordzik: We’ll see big impacts in clean-energy technology. Fuel cells have great promise, and nanotechnology can provide ways of making them more efficient. Fuel cells require a catalyst, something that helps move a process along more efficiently. Using certain nanoparticles as catalysts can improve the fuel cell’s efficiency significantly, and maybe increase the production of hydrogen within the cell so that it can be made smaller.
Then there’s the use of batteries in hybrid cars. Nanotech will provide the ability to make them smaller and more powerful. In 10 to 15 years, I’ll be surprised if at least half of the vehicles on our roads aren’t hybrids. Nanotech will allow Texans like me, who like pickups [laughs], to finally have a hybrid at that size.
Consider wind turbines. We’re installing a lot of them out in West Texas. Nanotech can make those devices more efficient because you can use nanoparticles for lubricants to reduce friction in the turbine. The materials used in the blades can be made lighter and stronger so that less wind is needed to turn them. And we can make the electrical lines with less resistance so that you can transport the electricity that’s made more efficiently.
Then there’s power storage. That’s the Holy Grail for the whole power system. When you turn off your lights in your house, maybe you think you’re saving electricity for the rest of the world. But you’re not, you’re just lowering your own energy bill. The electricity is always there. It’s being generated and pushed out onto the lines, and it’s going to be used or it’s not going to be used. It’s not being stored anywhere. We can’t do that right now.
A company in Nevada is making a very large prototype of an electrical storage unit for a power company. It uses nanoparticles to make it more efficient at retaining electricity. They’re going to put it on the grid and try storing excess power.
FN: What can the state do to support nanotechnology? Should we be doing more?
Kordzik: To date, about 30 percent of the Texas Emerging Technology Fund’s assistance has gone to nanotechnology. There could be a fund just for nanotechnology. There’s an obvious need. Nanotechnology is an important part of our future in Texas.
FN: Clearly, though, we’ll need private investment as well.
Kordzik: Oh, yes. We also need venture funds to start investing in our nanotech research. Some of these are coming together now. Texas doesn’t lag behind California or Massachusetts or anybody else in nanotech research within our universities. We’re at the forefront. We’re doing just as well – making just as many discoveries as anyone else.
Once our major companies start investing more in nanotech research and development, nanotech in Texas will really take off. FN
For more information on the Texas Nanotechnology Initiative, see the organization’s Web site at www.texasnano.org.
For more information on the Emerging Technology Fundvisit www.emergingtechfund.com.