WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s top official for technology extolled nanotechnology during a meeting Thursday, saying that helping to shepherd the industry toward commercialization ranks at the top of his priorities.
“It is an area I’m going to focus on,” said Phillip Bond, undersecretary of commerce for technology and chief of staff to Secretary of Commerce Don Evans. Crediting the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) for sparking an international race, Bond said nanotechnology’s promise is “mind boggling” and it’s imperative that “America retains its leadership in that area.”
Nanotechnology can “excite the next generation of scientists, and it could cause kids like my daughter to stay involved with science,” he said. “If we are going to inspire kids, it takes an inspiring vision, like fundamentally helping mankind” and fighting hunger. Nanotechnology, he said, fits that bill.
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The Bush administration has signaled its support of nanotechnology by boosting the NNI budget despite the tight, wartime budget, he said.
He would not say whether the administration backs moves in Congress to balloon the budget for the National Science Foundation during the next three years. As part of an NSF windfall, the money spent on nanotechnology would likely rise as well.
He said the administration “shares the vision about the need for the federal portfolio to be as evenly distributed as it can be,” but would neither champion nor denounce lawmakers’ calls for increasing the NSF budget. Benjamin Wu, deputy undersecretary for technology within the Department of Commerce, said the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has drafted a letter that “embraces the principles behind the bill,” but not specifically the budget numbers the bill recommended.
President Bush is on track to double the budget of the National Institutes of Health by next year. Politicians with interests in physical sciences, as well as Washington physical-sciences advocates, are arguing that just as the NIH budget gets a historic boost, so should the NSF, which funds the bulk of federal physical-sciences basic research.
With a proposed 2003 nanotechnology budget of $221 million, the NSF spends more on nanotechnology research than any other federal agency, with the Department of Defense, at $201 million, trailing close behind.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to give the NSF 15 percent increases during the next three years, which would put the agency on track toward a near doubling of its budget within five years.
The action now moves to the Senate, where powerful lawmakers like Ron Wyden, D-Ore., have said the NSF budget needs to get ratcheted up. Wyden is chairman of the Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space.
Thursday’s meeting was a media roundtable, and nanotechnology figured modestly on the agenda. But it ended up dominating the forum.
Bruce Mehlman, assistant secretary for technology policy, revealed that his office is working on a worldwide study of nanotechnology investments in countries around the world. He also said nanotechnology is a “core area” for his office. Mehlman serves as the administration’s chief liaison with the business community and as the business community’s chief connection to the administration.
Arden Bement, director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said there is a “full court press in every advanced nation in the world” to leverage nanotechnology into economic muscle, and NIST is working hard to help industry.
“The race is on,” he said. “The support of this administration is a clear indication of our seriousness to stay ahead of the pack.”
NIST’s role is two-fold, he said. It collaborates with the scientific community on developing science and finding an industrial niche for it, and the agency also serves as an ambassador from the science community to industrialists, helping companies understand how different technologies can be incorporated into products.
He said the agency is building a new laboratory that will lead the government’s efforts to provide reliable measurements at the nanoscale.
After the meeting, John Sargent, the official in Mehlman’s office responsible for the bulk of the policy work on emerging technologies like nanotechnology, said that while his office is spread thin, it has refused to put the fledgling nanotechnology industry on the back burner.
Sargent said the office has been studying whether new laws could be put in place to accelerate commercialization. He also said the office is scrutinizing current law for potential impediments to the industry.
The Department of Commerce is working on forming an advisory panel to wrestle with ethical issues that arise from emerging technologies. Nanotechnology, he said, would figure largely into this panel.
“Nanotechnology offers amazing potentials,” he said. “It has revolutionary potential for society and for people — letting deaf people hear and blind people see, for example — but it also could affect what it means to be a human being.”
The advisory panel would confront ethical issues even before they bubble up — to give the industry time to deal with potential problems. Other industries, such as agriculture bioengineering, where terms like “Frankenfood” have entered the popular lexicon, failed to grapple with ethical issues early enough, he said.