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John Ballato: 'Light' research can drive economic development

Submitted by: John Ballato on Dec 26, 2010 at 9:12 pm Tagged with: Economic Development, Innovation, Optics, Photonics Source: Clemson COMSET

Originally appeared as an op/ed in the Greenville News.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of one of most successful and productive research centers you’ve probably never heard of.

Although Clemson University’s Center for Optical Materials Science and Engineering Technologies, or COMSET, isn’t exactly a household word — or acronym — it has devoted a decade to creating a robust example of the value added by academic research to our state’s economic and intellectual development.

COMSET’s focus is the science and engineering of light. That’s not as esoteric a subject as you might think. In fact, it’s the foundation for more than 100 companies in the Carolinas, and it’s an industry with tremendous growth potential for the region.

Light plays an increasingly important role in the way we live. For instance, optical fiber is the enabling technology behind modern communications and is finding growing use in medical, sensing, and defense systems. The expanding market for optical fiber and other photonics-related technologies offers numerous possibilities for new high-paying homegrown jobs.

As a result, the Upstate South Carolina Alliance, a public/private regional economic development organization that markets the 10-county Upstate region, has designated Advanced Materials generally — and specifically photonics through COMSET — among its target industries for growth. In addition to a strong existing regional industry cluster, COMSET has proven success in translating local innovation into local jobs.

To date, two companies have been created directly from Clemson technology, employing about 30 people at more than twice the South Carolina per-capita average income. Two other companies have relocated to South Carolina from other states in order to be near COMSET’s faculty, students and world-class infrastructure. Several other companies presently are strong prospects for relocation.

Optics may not be as well known as other industries in the region, but it has a significant historical connection to South Carolina. Dr. Charles H. Townes, Greenville native and 1935 Furman graduate, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 (the year after receiving an honorary degree from Clemson) for his theories that led to the creation of the maser and, ultimately, the laser.

Today, the Charles H. Townes Laboratories for Optical Science and Engineering are the state-of-the-art home to COMSET’s optical materials, optoelectronic and laser activities. Based at the Advanced Materials Research Laboratory in Anderson, the Charles H. Townes Optical Science and Engineering program’s research and educational facilities are a very visible, globally distinctive and permanent connection to the only South Carolinian on the list of the world’s thousand most influential people of the past thousand years.

Significant partnerships between the public and private sectors have led to this success. COMSET was named a South Carolina Center of Economic Excellence (CoEE) in 2004 and was approved for $5 million from the state as half of a $10 million endowment to support an endowed chair in photonic materials; the Sirrine Textile Foundation, followed by the 3M Corporation, provided the lead matching funds to create the Sirrine Endowed Chair in Optical Fiber. In 2008 the CoEE review board approved $2 million in state funding, and PalmettoNet and Comporium provided the additional $2 million private investment to fully endow the PalmettoNet Endowed Chair in Optoelectronics.

COMSET’s 20 faculty have garnered nearly $50 million in competitively awarded external funding in the past decade. Those grants, consistently amongst the largest for a Clemson research center, support faculty, pay salaries and tuition for many graduate students, and have helped build laboratories that are among the best in the world. COMSET conducts an important blend of “what-if” basic science (the kind of research supported by the National Science Foundation) and more applied research with immediate deliverables (such as that funded by Department of Defense) in wide-ranging areas including organic LEDs, specialty optical fiber, light-emitting plastics, glasses and crystals, to name a few.

There’s been a healthy debate lately about the role of higher education in South Carolina’s economic livelihood. COMSET offers concrete, historic evidence that scientific discovery — which is fundamental to innovation — provides an important impetus to economic growth. Maintaining or regaining U.S. technological competitiveness demands innovation in fundamental science and in the training of a highly skilled workforce for domestic manufacturing of high-value products.

The future for photonics as a driver for South Carolina’s knowledge economy is strong, and COMSET is pleased to play a role in making it even stronger.

John Ballato, interim associate vice president for research at Clemson University, is professor of Materials Science and Engineering and director of COMSET.