New York's Senator
CHARLES E. SCHUMER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 22, 2001

SCHUMER, PATAKI UNVEIL PLAN FOR OPTICS RESEARCH FACILITY IN ROCHESTER

Schumer working to win "National Center of Excellence" designation to solidify Rochester as world's preeminent optics research center

Center has potential to bring hundreds of millions of federal research dollars into Rochester down the road

US Senator Charles E. Schumer and Governor George Pataki today unveiled a plan to create a major optics research facility in Rochester. This "Center of Excellence" will be a collaborative effort between industry, academia and government and is intended to create a high-tech hub in Western New York, increasing jobs and investment in the region and throughout the State.

"This has been a longtime dream of mine because this center can do for Rochester what the computer chips did for Silicon Valley," Schumer said. "The plan is a simple one: With the money that both the State and private industry are contributing, we will establish a critical mass for top level optics research with industry and academia working together. At that point, I will push the National Science Foundation to formally designate this Rochester group as a 'National Center of Excellence,' making it the first place the federal government looks for its optics research needs."

Over the last year, Schumer has been working with Corning, Kodak and Xerox to create a world class research facility in Rochester that will draw on the region's u nrivaled expertise in optical data transmission, switching, data storage, and imaging - research areas that the National Academy of Sciences believes have the greatest potential for growth in the coming years.

The center will pool the vast financial and intellectual resources of universities, industries and government. Both Schumer and Pataki are working at the federal and state levels respectively to garner funding support for the facility in Rochester and to create similar high tech facilities in other parts of the State. Once the Rochester facility is built and completed, Schumer said he will work to steer federal optics research opportunities to the region.

"We've come up with a five-year, $300 million plan that will create a center in Rochester that will be a research haven for private companies, academics and the government alike. The $75 million industry contribution which Corning, Kodak, and Xerox have committed to raising is great news for Rochester, as is the Governor's budget commitment. What I will do once it's completed is work to increase the federal commitment to optics research and fight to ensure that federal research grants flow to the region," Schumer said.

"Federal research opportunities will give students at Rochester universities the chance to work on cutting edge technology research. They'll give companies like Kodak, Xerox and Corning the opportunity to be full partners in the broad-based opto-electronics research that is too generalized and expensive for them to conduct alone.

"Most importantly, they will solidify these companies' ties to the Rochester area and make the City recognized as the world leader in these high tech sciences, creating new jobs as well as attracting new high tech companies to the area," Schumer continued.

The plan for the Rochester facility hit a roadblock two years ago when a Washington lobbyist tried to create a national center of optics research in St. Louis. Schumer worked to quash that effort and used the "scare from the Midwest" to garner local support for a facility in Rochester.

"They wanted to build an optics research center 800 miles west of the world's optics capital and its main companies. That's like building an airplane research facility a few thousand miles away from Boeing or Lockheed," Schumer said.

The research at the Rochester facility will focus on research ranging from weapons and satellite imaging devices to medical and communications equipment.

"This is research that touches our daily lives," Schumer said. "It's not just about making a satellite reconnaissance photo sharper and clearer or expanding a computer's memory capabilities. It's about improving the accuracy of the miniature cameras doctors use to look for tumors and ensuring that the x- rays taken in a rural area can be quickly sent to a specialist across the country."

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