BY EVA SYLWESTER
Science on the Rocks
The beginnings of something large
in nano research
T
he UO broke ground June 8 for a
two-phase, $76 million construc-
tion project that will provide facili-
ties for cutting-edge scientific develop-
ment, which UO and government officials
hope will benefit the state’s economic
development.
The first phase of UO’s Integrative
Science Complex, Lorry I. Lokey
Laboratories, will be one story underground
and will open in fall 2007. Named after
BusinessWire founder Lorry Lokey, who
donated a total of $10 million to both phas-
es of the project, the laboratories will pri-
marily be used for the work of the Oregon
Nanoscience and Microtechnologies
Institute (ONAMI).
Nanoscience deals with materials that are
extremely tiny. A common nanoparticle
compares in size to a human hair as a human
hair compares to a football field. Instruments
working with these materials, therefore, are
very sensitive to the slightest vibrations.
Years ago, the Riverfront Research Park
across Franklin Boulevard was considered as
a site for the ONAMI facility, but that was
rejected because the rumbling trains nearby
would have disrupted research. In contrast,
the underground site provides a nearly vibra-
tion-free environment, which UO chemistry
professor David Johnson attributed to an
extraordinary vibration frequency in the
campus-area bedrock.
“The instrument guy thought he had
broken his instrument, because it didn’t
read anything,” Johnson said, describing an
investigation of the site.
David Chen, chairman of ONAMI’s
board and venture capitalist for OVP Venture
Partners, said that when the facility is com-
pleted in 2007, it will be the largest single
network of nanotechnology equipment any-
where in the world. A fiberoptic cable in the
basement will connect all machines in the
building to each other, as well as linking to
machines at other institutions that the UO
collaborates with through ONAMI, such as
OSU, Portland State University, Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory and industry
representatives including Hewlett-Packard.
“You might think of this facility as a
high-tech extension service,” UO President
Dave Frohnmayer said at the groundbreak-
ing ceremony, adding that ONAMI partners
at other universities and in industry will
have 24-hour access to the more than 20
instruments inside.
This access will become a revenue
source for the UO, said Rich Linton, UO
vice president for research and graduate
studies, in a later interview. Companies
using the equipment will pay fees, which
the UO will use to maintain its equipment
and staff the facility with doctorate-holding
technicians.
The second phase of the Integrative
Science Complex, which is projected to be
completed in 2011, will focus on providing
space for interdisciplinary work between
cognitive neuroscientists, physical scien-
tists, biological scientists and computer
information scientists.
Linton said interdisciplinary science
centers are becoming common at other
major universities comparable to the UO.
“It reflects the nature of how science is
evolving,” Linton said. “To solve a prob-
lem, you more and more need teams of
researchers.”
Another collaboration that UO science
departments will be involved with soon is a
medical school, as students from Oregon
Health and Science University in Portland
will take classes at the UO and do clinical
work at PeaceHealth sites in Eugene and
Springfield. OHSU students may begin
clinical assignments in Eugene as early as
this fall, but the program will probably not
be fully implemented until fall 2008. Linton
said OHSU students could potentially use
the new facilities for research, especially in
the realm of neuroscience.
Beyond integrating scientific disciplines
at the UO, Linton said the name “Integrative
Science Complex” also refers to integrating
the UO with other institutions and the sur-
rounding community. For instance, ONAMI
is beginning to partner with community col-
leges, to provide people with two-year asso-
ciate’s degrees with the training to get jobs
in the nanotechnology industry, and is start-
ing to create businesses based on technolo-
gy developed at member universities.
Linton said the Riverfront Research Park,
where many such businesses will potential-
ly be housed, contributes to keeping busi-
nesses in the region.
“They’re not being created and moved
to California or Seattle,” he said.
ONAMI has been the target of some local
controversy because a portion of its funding
— Linton estimated 20 percent, across all
institutions involved — is obtained through
the Department of Defense.
“Just a DoD label is often the issue
here,” Linton said, adding that a number of
safeguards are in place to ensure that the
UO does not directly participate in weapons
research. He said DoD funding would not
be used for the two new buildings, which
are being funded through the Oregon
Legislature and private donations.
UO Federal Affairs Director Betsy Boyd
said that Oregon’s congressional delegation
could be changing federal priorities by lob-
bying their colleagues to fund ONAMI ini-
tiatives through the DoD, especially envi-
ronmentally friendly ones such as the UO-
based Inherently Safer Nanomaterials and
Nanomanufacturing initiative.
“It kind of shows how far you can utilize
DoD funds to connect to ends that are envi-
ronmentally responsible,” Linton said.
“Nanotechnology is about hope,” Gov.
Ted Kulongoski said at the groundbreaking
ceremony, elaborating that the emerging
science could solve the energy crisis, create
NICOLE BARKER
Rich Linton
new fibers that build better products and
bolster the economy by creating new jobs.
Kulongoski said he met with John
Marburger, science adviser to President Bush
and director of the national Office of Science
and Technology Policy, about a year and a
half ago, and Marburger told him, “What you
and the universities and the private sector
have done in Oregon is what we’re trying to
get the rest of the country to look at.”
Linton said ONAMI’s success would
eventually be measured on how well it inte-
grates academic research with direct appli-
cation in industry. Already it has helped
sustain existing nano businesses as well as
create new ones. At this point, the focus is
on getting students to graduate from the
program and start new companies.
“We have to manage long-term payback
against short-term expectations,” Linton said.
Since 2003, when research collabora-
tions between the UO and OSU became
formally established as ONAMI, the
Oregon Legislature has pumped $8 million
into the institute. Sen. Ryan Deckert (D-
Beaverton), who has helped Kulongoski
advocate for ONAMI funding in the
Legislature, said investing in nanoscience is
vital to maintaining America’s role in the
global economy.
“The last century was the American cen-
tury,” Deckert said. “The next century is up
for grabs.”
ew
JUNE 15, 2006
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