WHO IS A PART OF
ON AM I?
UNIVERSITIES GOVERNMENT
INDUSTRY
Selected
researchers
from OHSU &
Oregon
Graduate
Institute
OSU UO
Materials CAMCOR
Science
Institute
PSU State/federal
funding
~i
Office of
Technology
Transfer
i i—i—i—i
PNNL* Hewlett- FEI |nte| others
Packard Company
* PNNL is a U.S. Department of Energy national
laboratory but is operated by Batelle Science and
Technology International, allowing staff to work
for private industry.
Brki Furtwancler I Graphic artist
Continued from previous page
“I think ONAMI will benefit ...
from the funding going into the De
partment of Homeland Security,”
Linton said.
ONAMI partner Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory, one of nine U.S.
Department of Energy multi-program
national laboratories, does research in
the areas of computing and informa
tion technology, energy, environment,
fundamental science, health and safe
ty, marine sciences, national security
and nuclear technology. According to
the laboratory’s Web site, nearly half of
its $580 million annual business vol
ume reflects work in national security
programs for the Departments of Ener
gy, Homeland Security, Defense and
other federal agencies.
“PNNL is one of our four lead col
laborators, and we think there are
some great collaborations working
together in the area of homeland
security,” Rung said.
Hutchison said to his knowledge,
homeland security work is not being
done at the University.
Hutchison said PNNL researchers
sometimes use the University’s Time
of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass
Spectrometry machine, which helps
determine the composition of materi
als. It is shared with ONAMI affiliates
and others through the Center for Ad
vanced Materials Characterization in
Oregon. Hutchison said CAMCOR,
an arrangement for sharing Universi
ty scientific equipment, initially be
gan in the Materials Science Institute
but has since become a separate Uni
versity-wide entity, and he expressed
hope that CAMCOR would help
spread ONAMI further.
“This instrument is one that they
didn’t have, so it’s been a fantastic
collaboration to have them come
down and use our instruments, too,”
Hutchison said.
Rung said ONAMI has received
two contracts from the U.S. Congress
in defense appropriations. One con
tract, a U.S. Army-based project, is
Miniature Tactical Energy Systems,
which makes heating, cooling and
power systems for soldiers in vehi
cles. The Inherently Safer Nanomate
rials and Nanomanufacturing initia
tive, sponsored by the U.S. Air Force,
makes coatings for aircraft surfaces,
among other things. Hutchison is the
program manager for this initiative.
Rung said ONAMI doesn’t view
the U.S. Armed Forces differently
from other customers.
“This is something that they need
like anyone else,” Rung said, “noth
ing to do with weapons or anything
like that.”
Separate from ONAMI, PNNL is also
connected with the University through
the Technology Entrepreneurship Pro
gram, a collaboration between the Of
fice of Technology Transfer, the
Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship
and the School of Law.
“PNNL is very interested in form
ing regional collaborations across the
Northwest,” Gerhart said.
TEP, now in its third year, is an op
portunity for law and M.B.A. students
to practice developing business plans.
“They look at this collection of
technologies that come in from
PNNL and the Office of Technology
Transfer at the U of O,” Gerhart said.
“These are all real technologies, not
an academic exercise with no mean
ing in the real scheme of things, ...
and each team picks an innovation
that they want to perform an in
depth assessment on.”
ONAMI's new home
While ONAMI currently exists at
the University primarily through
communication between various sep
arately housed departments, plans to
give the institute a physical presence
on campus are in action. Linton said
the University has received $9.5 mil
lion in state bonds to build the Uni
versity’s ONAMI component, as part
of the Legislature’s initial $21 million
investment into ONAMI. Rung said
OSU and PSU also received $9.5 mil
lion and $1 million respectively to
renovate buildings used for ONAMI
work at those institutions.
Originally, Linton said, the plan
was to construct the new building in
the Riverfront Research Park on the
north side of Franklin Boulevard. Lin
ton said this plan had to be changed
because it was found that the vibra
tion caused by trains running nearby
would cause problems for sensitive
work done inside.
“When the site was tested, it did
n’t come up to the most stringent
standards that nanomaterials
require,” Linton said.
The new plan is to house ONAMI
on the east side of the current science
complex, between Huestis and De
schutes Halls. The building may not
be visible to passers-by.
“Because of the vibrational issues,
it turns out an underground site is
ideal,” Linton said.
Hutchison said the only thing
above ground may be a light tower to
let natural light down.
“The idea is that that region of
campus is an open-space area, and it
needs to stay open space,” Hutchison
said. “The plan is, there’ll still
be grass in that area. You’ll still
be able to see through to
Franklin (Boulevard).”
Hutchison said design sketches
will be generated within the next
month after meetings with planners
and the new building’s potential
users. Linton said the next step is for
the Campus Planning Committee to
approve the building.
“There’s funding in hand, and
we’re optimistic we’ll get construc
tion started within the next year,”
Linton said.
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