1/31/2006
Ross Perot To Open Nanotech Conference In Dallas
Ross Perot To Open Nanotech Conference In Dallas
DALLAS (Jan. 31, 2006) -- H. Ross Perot, internationally renowned business leader and one time presidential candidate, will deliver the opening remarks at nanoTX’06 on Sept. 27, a nanotechnology conference and expo held at the Dallas Convention Center. Chosen in 2004 as one of history's 10 greatest entrepreneurs, Perot is known to have followed advances in nanotechnology since 1999. Today he is heavily invested in nanotechnology firms with undervalued intellectual property rights, including trademarks, trade secrets, patents and copyrightable material.
Perot has a history of betting on promising technology and made the bulk of his $3.7 billion fortune by starting the data-processing company Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
Over the years Perot has received numerous awards for his business success and community service, including the Eisenhower Award for support of the nation's Armed Forces, the Winston Churchill Award, the Horatio Alger Award, the National Business Hall of Fame Award, the Smithsonian Computerworld Award (first recipient; given for contributions to the computer industry), the Sarnoff Award (for contributions to the electronics industry), Medal for Distinguished Public Service (highest civilian award presented by the Department of Defense; given for his efforts supporting U.S. prisoners of war), the Raoul Wallenberg Award (first recipient; given for lifetime service reminiscent of the Swedish diplomat), the Jefferson Award for Public Service, the Patrick Henry Award (first recipient; given to a U.S. citizen for outstanding service to his country). As a noted author, his several books include "Preparing Our Country for the 21st Century."
Presented by the Texas Nanotechnology Initiative, the event carries the theme: The Promise of Tomorrow—The Business of Nanotechnology.
Also expected at nanoTX’06 is U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) who as chairman of the Department of Defense Appropriations Committee included $15 million in new funding for research in nanotechnology. The program is a consortium comprised of the University of Texas (UT) at Arlington, UT-Austin, UT-Brownsville, UT-Dallas, UT-Pan American, Rice University and the University of Houston, that are also participating in nanoTX’06, Sept. 27-28, 2006.
This funding will build on that effort and continue the consortium's work to establish a collaborative network of well-equipped research centers to rapidly develop and promote nanotechnology.
"Texas is pushing the envelope even further in research and that is certainly the case with nanotechnology," Sen. Hutchison said, who has made elevating the national profile and federal funding for Texas' higher education research a top priority.
To mark these strides in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry has proclaimed the week of Sept. 24-30, 2006, as Nanotechnology Week in Texas. Dallas Mayor Laura Miller also signed a similar proclamation of her own.
The $200 million Texas Emerging Technology Fund is also a subject of study at nanoTX’06. Technologists and business leaders from around the country have been requesting detailed information on how the Texas governor’s office launched the Emerging Technology Fund. Now the office of Gov. Perry, in cooperation with the Texas Nanotechnology Initiative, has agreed to have two people key to the fund's creation and implementation release a detailed study of the fund at nanoTX’06.
To be released are valuable insights in the creation of the fund, its passage through the Texas legislature, and how it is being implemented, told by three key people. "It was difficult and complicated in organizing technologists and businesses to get behind such an effort in a state as large as Texas," says Kelly Kordzik, president of the Texas Nanotechnology Initiative in Austin. Kordzik is joining with the governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff Phil Wilson, and Mark Ellison, director of the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.
Cosponsoring organizations include the Nanotechnology Foundation of Texas, the Texas Healthcare & Bioscience Institute, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, the Science Place & Planetarium, the
Metroplex Technology Business Council, and others. Speakers will present the latest research on how their nanotech applications apply to business and commerce, and include such respected names as Dr. Ray H. Baughman, director of the NanoTech Institute of the University of Texas at Dallas and the Robert A. Welch professor of chemistry. Dr. Baughman will speak on
New Inventions of UTD’s NanoTech Institute: From Multifunctional Nanotube Fibers and Sheets to Artificial Muscles, Displays, and Devices for Energy Harvesting, Storage, and Conversion. Among other top pioneers in nanotech to speak include Dr. Handel Jones, founder and CEO of International Business Strategies; Dr. Hans Stork, CTO at Texas Instruments; Sue Billat, Benchmark Strategies; Dr. Mark Pinto, senior vice president and CTO at Applied Materials; Mark Hakey of IBM Corporation and Jim Von Ehr, founder of Zyvex Corporation, the first molecular nanotechnology company in the world. Zyvex is a highly renowned world-scale player in the nanotechnology community, the most publicized private nanotechnology business in the world, and the most highly regarded company in the field of molecular assemblers.
For more information, visit
www.nanotx.biz.
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