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NEW UB RESEARCH CENTER MAY CREATE PRODUCTS TO BE MADE HERE
Published on November 23, 1999
Author: FRED O. WILLIAMS
© The Buffalo News Inc.
With the right lasers, technicians may test aircraft for invisible stress damage after every landing, University at Buffalo alumnus Steve Goldstein said.
And designers of plastic cars could see how their materials hold up at the test track instead of in a laboratory. "We're looking at applications in plastics where lasers will be used for non-destructive testing," said Goldstein, manager of technical services with BASF Corp. in Rensselaer. The BASF research is one of the projects getting a hand from the UB Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, UB's newest research center being officially unveiled today by President William R. Greiner and university officials. The institute will bring scientists from different disciplines together and apply their know-how to industrial problems. It is the latest in a number of research centers recently created at UB, including the Toshiba Stroke Research Center and the supercomputer-oriented Center for Computational Research. "In addition to research and training, a major focus will be on developing products, innovations, new technology and biotechnology . . . to aid the economic growth of the Western New York region," said Professor Paras N. Prasad, executive director of the institute. The business side of the institute will help bring innovations into commercial use by industry or start-up companies, he said. In addition to BASF Corp.'s Colorants and Additives for Plastics Division, the institute is making ties with Kodak and Corning Inc., Kaleida Group Inc. and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. "We put a great deal of emphasis on being different from what an academic unit generally is," said Prasad. The chemistry professor is also the co-founder of a company called Laser Photonics Technologies Inc. that is developing optical data storage materials. The laser institute has about 50 core faculty researchers in chemistry, physics, engineering and medicine. Its main facilities are housed on two floors of the Natural Sciences Complex at UB's North Campus in Amherst. The institute encompasses research programs funded by about $11 million annually in federal research money, Prasad said. Its equipment, such as atomic-level imaging technology, represents an approximately $10 million investment. "We are building on something that's already substantial -- certainly there's a multimillion-dollar goal" for annual research. In addition to lasers for testing plastics, some of the products and technology that could reach commercial use within 10 years include: Three-dimensional compact disks that optically store thousands of times more information than a flat CD. Microscopic clinics called "nanobubbles" that deliver probes, genes, drugs or other materials to individual cells. Photosensitizers activated by infrared light that help locate and treat deep tumors. Hand-held surgical lasers that help regenerate muscle tissue. The institute will constitute a "critical force in Western New York for the creation and development of new technologies," UB engineering dean Mark Karwan said in a statement. Participants include UB's College of Arts and Sciences, School of Medicine and Biomedical Research, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and School of Dental Medicine.<
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