Selectmen Take First Small Step Toward Nanotech Proposal

By John Voket

During the summer of 2005, Newtown resident, scientist, and octogenarian Oscar Berendsohn started aggressively urging town officials to explore the idea of developing a nanotechnology center, either educational, commercial, or a combination of the two. He still believes the Fairfield Hills campus is an ideal location for such a development, and this week, the Newtown Board of Selectmen took a small step to explore bringing Mr Berendsohn’s big idea to fruition.

The board voted unanimously Monday to establish an ad-hoc exploratory committee to examine the feasibility of such a project in town. In August 2005 he first approached the Newtown Legislative Council, encouraging its members to endorse an ordinance creating a nonpolicy-making authority to in part, transact leases for any appropriate buildings remaining after demolition activities are completed.

At the time, Mr Berendsohn said a number of existing buildings remaining from the former state hospital, and the campus itself, would be appropriate for a small institute that could be among the first, or possibly even the first, in the United States to offer doctorate and master’s degrees in nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology refers to a wide range of scientific or technological projects that focus on phenomena or properties of the nanometer scale. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter.

Nanotechnology is a blossoming field, but molecular nanotechnology — the goal of productive, molecular-scale machine systems — is still in the preliminary research stage.

Besides the selectmen, Mr Berendsohn has a fan in State Senate Minority Leader John McKinney.

Sen McKinney told The Bee following the selectmen’s decision to form a nanotechnology committee that the state was holding firm to its 2006 commitment of $40 million to underwrite research in the field at Connecticut universities and colleges.

“Connecticut’s financial services industry has certainly changed in recent months, in terms of its investments, and that is costing jobs,” Sen McKinney said. “Looking at nanotechnology could mean growing jobs in this new area.”

Sen McKinney agreed with Mr Berendsohn, saying the state could become a global center for this emerging technology, as well as for fuel cell development, and one of the state’s facilities could certainly find its home in Newtown.

“Fairfield Hills is one of the state’s few properties that lends itself to the campuslike setting ideal for this kind of technology development,” Sen McKinney said. “Pfizer built a similar complex in New London. So I am excited the Newtown Board of Selectmen is looking at this issue seriously.”

Senator McKinney said that despite a failure in 2007, he expects to resurrect and support legislation providing further financial support and economic development tax credits as incentives to develop nanotechnology and other similar scientific initiatives.

“These incentives would create a partnership among municipalities, the state and the business community,” Sen McKinney said.

According to the first selectman’s office, Mr Berendsohn would chair the three- to five-member committee, and would seek a member of the Fairfield Hills Authority to either be on the group or act as a liaison. Republican Selectman Paul Mangiafico said he expected initial reports to be forthcoming from the new committee by mid-2009.