The Nanotechnology Foundation of Texas (NFT) was a research
initiative funded by tax deductible donations from individuals,
corporations and foundations. The Foundation's purpose was
to accelerate nanotechnology research in Texas by:
- Providing funding to
help current nanotechnology researchers expand their fields of investigation;
- Sponsoring
annual Nano Summit conferences to encourage collaboration amount Texas nanotechnology
researchers and to educate both Texans and those outside our state about the research
being done in Texas in order to develop broader funding sources for Texas research,
and
- Recruiting the most qualified graduate students and post
doctoral researchers into the field of nanotechnology.
NFT is no longer active in fund raising
and is not accepting donations because we were an "accelerator
program"; that is, we were established to help accelerate
nanotechnology research.
Since our founding,
several other initiatives have been launched that overlap
our work. Rather than continue, we chose to support
these others efforts indirectly.
Examples of significant
other initiatives include: 1) The SPRING consortium
of Texas universities that have raised over $20 million federal
dollars to support nanotechnology research. This group
has raised many millions of new dollars to support research
efforts in Austin, Dallas and Houston. 2) The establishment
of the Alliance for NanoHealth, another consortium of Texas
universities addressing the life science opportunities of
nanotechnology. It has resulted in over $20 million
dollars being awarded to Houston-based Texas researchers totaling
several million dollars. 3) Tthe establishment of the
Emerging Technologies Fund by the state. This fund has
been very supportive in the commercialization of nanotechnology
and other research-based commercialization efforts in Texas;
with $300 million in commercialization and research funds.
4) The transition of the Nano Summit to Texas A&M
University which will continue highlighting the research side
of nanotechnology.
Many other initiatives
have been launched and other activities have taken place,
but these are the most significant.
Perhaps the most
important, however, is that nanotechnology is maturing.
Nanotechnology is creeping into every natural science.
Richard Smalley, Nobel Laureate and former NFT Board of Champions
member, often said that nanotechnology represented the maturing
of the natural sciences. We are seeing that now.
Years from now, people will not talk about nanotechnology
as if it were a separate science. Rather , we will see
nanotechnology enabling new discoveries in biology, chemistry,
physics and many applied technologies without any reference
to "nano".
NFT was a statewide
program. The opportunity is too large for a single institution
or city to handle alone., and that opportunity continues as
the initiatives listed above mature.
NFT was planned
to be a short-lived foundation. That is, the original
plan was to be operational for three to five years to accelerate
the nanotechnology activities in Texas. IN 2006 we were
in year 6 of the Foundation and I began slowly transitioning
our activities to other organizations and moving into a new
career.
In
May 2004, my wife and I bought a small ranch in the Texas
panhandle. The first two years were spent planning our land
use and facilities. Starting in the summer of 2006, we began
to execute that plan by building a barn and bunkhouse. That
was followed in the spring of 2007 by starting construction
of a ranch house that will become our permanent home by Fall
2007 -- I hope!
We
are looking forward to this new career as ranchers. But we
will also stay involved in a less intensive way with nanotechnology.
Below
are a couple of pictures of the ranch. The first is
our dog in a pasture that overlooks a small canyon.
The second is sunrise on the ranch. You can see why
I am eager to move on to this next career!
The next two pictures
show the foundation being built in late March and a few turkey
that were grazing down the road from the house location.
You can track our
construction progress on our builders's web site, www.cci-cbc.com.
When you go there, scan down the left-hand side to
Home 188 Page 4.
Now back to the
Foundation results.
All funds we raised
have been spent over a relatively short period of time; the
Foundation is not endowed. All expenditures for 2006
and following are my personal contributions to Texas research.
The
Foundation's directory of Nanotechnology companies has grown
from 12 to 55 as of Jan 2006 demonstrating the value of basis
scientific research to an economy. We no longer maintain this
directory, since Texas has reached critical mass in commercialization
of research.

NFT was organized as a 501c(3), nonprofit foundation with
a Board of Directors, a Scientific Advisory Board, and a group
of civic leaders called Champions. Now it is a personal
effort of Conrad Masterson
The
Foundation was and continues to be a 100% volunteer effort.
No money has been spent on salaries or rent. All of our programs
have resulted from volunteers who saw the vision.
I
want to thank many who have helped us over the years. Many
of these people will continue working to accelerate nanotechnology
research working with other organizations.
First
and foremost were the volunteers. Andy Nat was our first volunteer
and he helped with several Nano Summit Conferences as well
as helping with fund raising. Amir Abileah, Wade Adams, Carlos
Garcia, Jean Anne Mire and Deborah Mansfield have also been
extremely helpful for several years in many tasks, but particularly
in running the Conference. Our web site, which has been instrumental
in promoting the activities in Texas with over 6000 visitors
a month, would not have been possible without the help of
Rice University and Ben Livesay. This newsletter is prepared
every month with the help of Munim Hussain and Reid Pennebaker.
Mitch Jeffrey has helped every year in promoting the conference
and Kozmetsky awards.
There
have been others, of course, including Tracey Allely, Jeff
Axley, Madhavi Bhatia , Beau Carpenter, Deji Coker, John Dodson,
Baburaj Eranezhuth, Sylvester Garza, Greg Grant, Timothy Graves,
Jeff Hancock , Mark Harrington, Catherine Ives, David R. Johnson,
John Marsh, Scott Olson , Paula A. Ortega, Valerie Palmquist
, Tusher Prasad, James Le Quynh, Jeffrey Roeth, Eric Rothe,
Hemanta Sarkar, Jennifer Sickler, Charles Simmons, Sheryl
Stringer, Howard Schmidt, John Sturtevant, Pamela Tyler, Shyamala
Vinnakota, Mark Vreeke and some that I am sure I have overlooked.
We had over 30 people who served as points of contact at various
universities providing “feet on the street” around the state.
I
would also be remiss in not mentioning our Board of Champions
that included Lloyd Bentsen, Louis Brousseau, James Calaway,
Deborah Cannon, Steve Currall, Charles Duncan, Larry Faulkner,
Paul Frison, Malcolm Gillis, George Kozmetsky, Neal Lane ,
Matt Simmons, Juan Sanchez, Marc Shapiro, Rick Smalley and
Ken Williams.
Of
particular importance were the contributions of Rick Smalley,
George Kozmetsky and Malcolm Gillis. These three were a constant
encouragement. When Rick and George died, the state lost two
great leaders with vision for science and technology in Texas.
I
want to thank the Foundation's Scientific Advisory Board who
played the key role in selecting the Outstanding Nanotechnology
Graduate Student Awards. These professors and business people
made these awards possible by reviewing and scoring the many
applications for this fellowship. Thank you to Ray Baughman,
Yildiz Bayazitoglu, Gary Beall, Rebekeh Drezek, Ronald Elsenbaumer,
Wolfgang Frey, Bruce Gnade, Viktor Hadjiev, Naomi Halas, Susan
Hardin, Jeffrey Hartgerink, Brian Korgel, Pradeep Sharma,
Peter Vekilov, James Versalovic, Bruce Weisman, Richard Wilkins,
and David Zimmerman. They selected Tobias Hanrath, Vinit S.
Murthy, Shravanthi Reddy, Aaron Saunders, Balaji Sitharaman
and Yuhuang Wang as recipients. These young researchers are
already contributing to their chosen filed of research.
I
want to thank Mark Folladori, of Mayer, Brown, Rowe &
Maw and John Furst who assisted me with governance and advice.
|

The NFT announced
the recipients of the third George Kozmetski Outstanding Graduate
Student Awards in January 2006, recognizing excellence in
nanotechnology research with potential applications in life
sciences, electronics and/or energy. NFT supporters.
Various donors made these grants possible that are given to
the outstanding nanotechnology graduate students in the state.
NFT sponsored the
annual Nano Summit Research Conference until 1007 when Texas
A&M University began holding the conference. The annual
Nano Summit provides a forum for researchers and students
from the medical, natural science, and engineering communities
in Texas to meet and exchange information on their nanotechnology
research. Another goal is to encourage collaboration among
engineering, natural science and medical research professionals
in industry and academia. The first of the Nano Summits was
held on August 1, 2002. This is a statewide meeting for professors
and graduate students from over a dozen universities and medical
schools.
We also sponsor
or assist in organizing other conferences in Texas, most notably
nanoTX'06 and nanoTX'07
> More about
Nano Summit
Over 250 people
attended the Nano Summit in 2006 to hear 17 professors from
about 10 universities and related research organizations.
The large majority of the attendees were directly involved
in research.
Success of the Summit
is not only measured in terms of participation in the event,
but perhaps more importantly in the collaborations which result
from bringing the researchers and interested parties together.
The 2002 Summit resulted in one collaboration. That
collaboration along with some related research resulted
in a new life sciences startup company.
The 2003 Summit had 6 potential collaborations and 2 potential
sponsored research projects identified - a fantastic
indication of success. By this measure alone, the Nano
Summit is the best one day research-oriented conference in
the US after only three years.
There were numerous
benefits to the various NFT stakeholders. The educational
and research organizations:
- Had better educational programs as a result of access
to better professors
- Were able to recruit better students because of stronger
educational programs
- Were able to raise more money by being a part of a new
technology cluster
Donors:
- Were able to make significant impact without having to
be burdened with selecting the best research opportunities
- Had the ability to meet with leading researchers and young
grad students to discuss leading edge research
- Played a pivotal role in developing the state's technology
base
- Contributed to the development of the new industrial base
of the state
The business community will have:
- A way to support
necessary, leading edge research without being the sole
support
- A
window into now unknown technologies and ability
to monitor their evolution
- A
pipeline of new technologies and well educated
people that understand the technologies
- Access to the world's
experts to develop new products, applications and solutions
for the computer, electronic, specialty chemical, composite
material, and pharmaceutical industries
The region had
the following:
- A highly educated workforce
- A
diverse, non-polluting industry with high paying
jobs for many educational levels
- Leaders in a knowledge-based
economy with strong links to the existing electronics,
chemical, material and pharmaceutical industries
The region is developing into the high-tech cluster or
series of clusters of the 21st century. This cluster will be
similar in some ways to the Silicon Valley of the 20th Century,
having a strong research foundation and expanding upon the existing
industry clusters of the state. The Texas cluster will differ
in that it will cover a much larger geographic area, stretching
from Austin to Dallas to Houston. |