It’s been a while since I’ve posted any items about nanotechnology efforts in New York state. In general, I’ve found the efforts at communication and public engagement quite impressive as they’ve been important to the overall strategy (I suspect some credit should be given to serendipity) of making New York state a center for nanotechnology research, training, and industry.

Yesterday, May 8, 2012, on the occasion of a visit from President Barack Obama there was a bit of a kerfuffle regarding who should get the credit for New York state’s leadership, Democrats or Republicans. Since this is an election year in the US, this was perhaps predictable.

From the May 8, 2012 article by Tom Precious for BuffaloNews.com,

In Albany [New York state capital] today, it’s “who is the greater visionary” time.

…

On Monday, an aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo told an Albany radio station it was first the idea of the governor’s father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, to pump state money into what has become a center with more than $13 billion of private investment and that today is undergoing a major new expansion partnering with the likes of IBM and Intel.

Hours later on Monday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, noted that he has led the charge for two decades to support the university center that is helping to make Albany a high-tech center for nanoscience engineering, and now, chip manufacturing.

So today, a couple hours before Air Force One was set to leave Washington for Albany for the Obama stop, it was “take credit time” for the Republicans.

State Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox said the nanoscale center in Albany was “developed about 10 years ago by a Republican governor based on Republican principles.” In a conference call with reporters, Cox said the Albany facility was a result of the “leadership” of former Gov. George E. Pataki.

“Arguing over credit is something for small-minded people who get bogged down in the political headlines of the day. What I tried to do was put in place policies that speak for themselves,” Pataki said in the phone call this morning. He then pointed, for a second time in the call, to the timeline of its important events on the nanoscale facility’s web site that begins in 2001 — when Pataki was in office.

I think there’s enough credit to go around, although perhaps not during an election year. In any event, I think their initiative has been quite impressive.

* In headline ‘breed’ corrected to ‘breeds’ on Oct. 11, 2013.