Senator Charles E. Schumer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 23, 2004

Schumer, Clinton: Key Senate Panel Backs $5 Million For National Center For Excellence In Infotonics

Federal funds would provide money for the ongoing construction and maintenance of the world class research and development lab for Infotonics

US Senators Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton announced today that the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved $5 million under the 2005 Defense Department spending bill for to support the work of Rochester’s National Center for Excellence in Infotonics. The bill must now be approved by the full Senate before being sent to a House and Senate Conference Committee and eventually being signed into law.

The federal funding would go toward supporting the work at the state-of-the-art research and development laboratory within which the photonics companies from across the state and the country will be able to work with world class industrial and university scientists in bridging the gap between basic research and product manufacturing using photonics. Such devices are expected to play a key role in chem-bio detection and health monitoring applications.

“This center is one of the area’s great hopes,” said Schumer. “Rochester is becoming known throughout the country as a brain trust for technological developments, home to some of the best minds and research facilities. The Center for Excellence will put Rochester on the map worldwide for photonic research and will be a windfall for the area. Jobs is the magic word and that's what this center will bring.”

“The world is already talking about the cutting-edge work being done at the center and this funding stands as a further commitment to our investment in the future of this research and the greater Rochester region,” Senator Clinton said. "By investing in this type of world class research being done right here the greater Rochester region, we are investing not only in the local economy but in the future of the entire state. I am so proud of the work being done by the National Center for Excellence in Infotonics and will continue to work to secure the kind of meaningful federal investments it needs to thrive."

The National Center for Excellence is an industry-university-New York State Government-led, non-profit research partnership created to help utilize existing concentration of photonics industries and university research capabilities. The Center of Excellence - under the auspices of Corning, Kodak, Xerox - will work with two dozen academic institutions including the University of Rochester, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and Monroe Community College to lock in New York's top spot in photonics, optics and fiber optics.

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