Industry News

NASA broke ground on a $23 million office building in Hampton, Va., in July of 2009. The 72,000-sf Building 1 will be constructed to attain LEED Gold sustainable design certification. The project is part of a $200 million renovation and expansion of Langley Research Center to support aeronautics research with improved facilities and infrastructure.

Jetstream Wind broke ground on a $219 million hydrogen power plant in July of 2009 in Truth or Consequences, N.M. The 10-megwatt facility is the world's first utility-scale, zero-emissions hydrogen power plant and will use electricity from wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen will be burned in a turbine to generate electricity. Completion is expected by early 2011. Jetstream Wind is based in Albuquerque, N.M.

Clemson University opened the 28,000-sf Harris A. Smith Building in mid-2009 in Clemson, S.C. Housing the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics, the $7 million facility supports instruction and research in packaging science, graphic communications, environmental science, manufacturing principles, and marketing.

The State University of New York Institute of Technology (SUNYIT) is planning to build the $45 million Computer Chip Commercialization Center in Marcy, N.Y. Created in partnership with University at Albany College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering, the facility will support R&D collaboration with private industry partners. Construction is expected to begin in fall of 2009 and reach completion in 2011.

President Barack Obama allocated $1.825 billion for H1N1 preparedness in July of 2009. Supporting vaccine development, testing, and planning, the funding comes from $7.65 in funding previously awarded to the Department of Health and Human Services by Congress for H1N1 pandemic response. H1N1 vaccine manufacturers for the United States include Novartis, Sanofi Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline, Baxter, and AstraZeneca.