Nanotech potential in spotlight

A state doesn't need large companies to be known for "tiny" technology.

And that's good news for Utah.

Paul Clayson, chairman and chief executive officer of a company using nanotechnology, said Thursday that growth in nanotechnology development is coming not just from large companies but also from many small ones or from companies collaborating with research institutions.

"That is really significant — really significant for us as we move forward," Clayson said during "nanoUtah 2006, Utah's Statewide Nanotechnology Conference," Thursday at the University of Utah.

"We have a lot of small companies in Utah. We don't have large companies. ... Now, that means that we have an opportunity in the state of Utah to use our entrepreneurial spirit to help small companies to grow some of these technologies and some of these products as we go forward."

Clayson is the leader of nCoat Inc., a coatings and materials development company, and president and chief executive officer of Sequoia Pacific Research Co. The coatings business uses nanotechnology, which involves using structures as small as one-billionth of a meter — a cubic nanometer has between 1,000 and 2,000 atoms.

But the "tiny" technology is becoming big business. Clayson said sales of products using emerging nanotechnology could reach $2.6 trillion by 2014. Nano-enabled product revenue jumped from only $1.2 billion in 2004 to an expected $32 billion-plus this year. Various federal and state initiatives are focused on nano development, as are several on the corporate side. Venture capitalists also are turning an eye toward nanotechnology, although many want to first see some commercial revenue, he said.

But Clayson sees an opportunity for Utah, noting that a ranking of the top 10 states' attractiveness for venture capital involving nanotechnology was led by the same two states in both 2004 and 2005 — California and Massachusetts — but the remaining eight shuffled during that time. What's more, small states, including Rhode Island, broke into the list.

"Why are we letting Rhode Island beat our tail to the nanotechnology bucket? ... We've got tremendous resources here. We've got tremendous opportunity. We've got fabulous research universities. We've got that huge entrepreneurial spirit. We need to be taking a look at that and focusing on the development of this," Clayson said.

Utah has its share of advantages and disadvantages listed in various business-related rankings, but the state risks losing jobs if it does not get involved prominently in nanotechnology development and commercialization, he said. And those jobs are not just direct jobs, but also those in any existing industry that can be affected by nanotechnology.