Pacific Northwest blazing big trail in small world

The implementation agreement for the Microproducts Breakthrough Institute was signed by PNNL Director Len Peters (center), OSU Provost Subah Randhawa (right) and witnessed by Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute Executive Director Skip Rung (left).

Last month's Micro Nano Breakthrough Conference in Portland brought together an amalgamation of national and international technology experts, with organizers hoping to convince them of a large future in the Pacific Northwest for tiny technology. Micro and nanotechnology represent the technology of miniature processes and systems, and the conference offered an avenue for sharing ideas, building networks and developing new microproducts for areas such as health care, electronics, energy and defense.

It attracted representatives from Hewlett-Packard, Intel and several foreign companies in Germany and Gibraltar. The conference also highlighted the announcement of $5 million in likely federal funding and a $1.3 million grant to fund nanotechnology in the Northwest, a small but significant amount to jump-start the region's tech-based economic development. The conference was sponsored by the Microproducts Breakthrough Institute, a collaboration between Oregon State University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.