Recordpub.com - KSU part of grant worth $8 million Will be for liquid crystal research

By Dave O'Brien

Record-Courier staff writer

The state's Third Frontier research and development project and Ohio Research Scholars Program has given $8 million in funds to a collaboration between Northeastern Ohio liquid crystal research companies and a number of local universities, including Kent State University, called the Research Cluster on Surfaces in Advanced Materials.

State Rep. Kathleen Chandler said the money was in the state budget, went through the allocation process and was released Tuesday through the Ohio Controlling Board, which oversees major state expenditures. Its seven members include three state senators, three state representatives and a board president.

"It's a really exciting program," Chandler said. "The two really exciting things about it are that it's a collaboration between several universities and between different corporations."

The cluster combines research capabilities at KSU, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Youngstown State University with the environmental technologies at the Cleveland Botanical Garden. KSU and the botanical garden have co-developed glass that, with the touch of a button, can become transparent or opaque to allow sunlight into a greenhouse or block out the sun to protect plants from heat and sun damage.

"Visualize just how exciting these developments can be. There are many, many greenhouses throughout the world, and if this is a better product it will be utilized," Chandler said.

The money also will aid the commercial development of new technologies at Northeast Ohio based AlphaMicron Inc., Kent Displays Inc., Kent Optronics Inc., CoAdna Photonics Inc., and LXD Inc. to further explore the surface properties of "soft materials" such as liquid crystal displays, or LCDs.

Chandler said researchers identify critical uses for the science developed at area universities and give the technology to firms that license, develop, manufacture, market and sell the technology to commercial buyers.

The Ohio Research Scholars Program is a joint project between the Ohio Department of Development and the Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents that provides grants supporting and increasing research clusters in Ohio's colleges and universities. Its primary goal is to attract talented researchers to encourage and support economic development.

"We think it will produce a lot of jobs. That's the whole idea of this program: To put people to work now," Chandler said.