Houston Strategies

Rice University ranked #1 in Nanotech

Here is the blurb from the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship:

Rice University Ranked #1 by Small Times Magazine

Rice University was ranked as the number one university in the U.S. in the commercialization of nanotechnology in the 2005 rankings just published by Small Times magazine.

Small Times Magazine also ranked Rice University as the number one university in the U.S. in terms of the overall strength of its nanotechnology patent portfolio.

Small Times Magazine recognized Rice University for its "aggressive nanotechnology initiative, collaborative business school, and university-supported technology transfer efforts".

Small Times Magazine also pointed to the assistance provided to new start-up companies by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, and to the "network of inventors and entrepreneurs in the Houston region" the Rice Alliance provides.

Small Times Magazine is a leading source of business information about micro and nanotechnology.

More on the ranking

As an alum, I'm obviously biased, but I think this really has a shot at becoming a big part of Houston's economic base over the next couple of decades, especially biological applications of nanotech in conjunction with the Texas Medical Center. Rice is building a very large joint research center with the TMC at the corner of Main and University. I don't think it'll be at the same scale as Stanford and Silicon Valley in the 80's and 90's - the Internet makes that kind of tight geographic industry concentration not as necessary as it used to be - but it could be a substantial industry cluster nonetheless.

Energy, energy trading, the port, nanotech, TMC medical services and biotech - all of Houston's core industries are on pretty good growth trajectories. Might just be the raw ingredients for the next boomtown...

posted by Tory Gattis @ 10:08 PM