Photo courtesy of UR Communications
The City of Rochester was announced as one of three finalists for the location of a new Integrated Photonics Institute for Manufacturing Innovation (IPIMI) on Jan. 30, 2015. The proposed Institute was announced by President Barack Obama on Oct. 3, 2014 and will create a vertically integrated manufacturing system for photonics and optics technology in the United States.
Photonics is the study of light and photons, a field that encompasses research into lenses, lasers and fiber optics. The Institute will be partially funded by a $110 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), with additional funding to come from state and other sources.
The government called upon research institutions across the nation to submit applications. From among these applicants, three locations were selected as finalists. The New York coalition is led by the City of Rochester in cooperation with UR, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and the State Universities of New York (SUNY). The other finalists are a coalition from California, led by the University of Southern California, and another research consortium from Florida, led by the University of Central Florida.
All three applicants will be required to submit a final application by March 31, 2015. At UR, the effort is being coordinated by Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Hajim School of Engineering Robert Clark. UR’s Vice Provost of Entrepreneurship Duncan Moore is another key figure in Rochester’s proposal. Moore was on the National Research Council committee that originally proposed the Institute. Clark and Moore are joined in their efforts by Deputy Director of the Center for Emerging & Innovative Sciences Paul Ballentine and Electrical & Computer Engineering Professor Mark Bocko.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, U.S. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and New York State Assembly Leader Joseph Morelle have joined the campaign to bring the Institute to Rochester.
In a statement, Slaughter expressed confidence in the chances of the Rochester coalition.
“We already have the edge on them,” she said. “We’ve had the edge on them for a couple generations. Going back to Kodak, and Bausch and Lomb and Xerox […] what we have here is expertise that no other community can put together.” Slaughter has requested an investment of $250 million from New York State in the event Rochester is chosen as the location of the Institute. Academic and industry partners from around the state will contribute to further funding.
Steering Committee Chair- man of the National Photonics Initiative (NPI) Tom Baer called the finalists “excellent choices for the new Integrated Photonics Institute for Manufacturing Innovation.” He added, “On behalf of the NPI, I am pleased to pledge our full support to DoD and its ultimate selection for the long-term success of the IP-IMI and look forward to working with the winner to encourage further photonics collaboration between industry, academia and government.”
“It’s really about making sure that we remain the optics capital of the world and that’s what Rochester stands for,” Clark said.
Passanisi is a member of the class of 2017.
