<title>State initiatives in support of optics: New Mexico, a case study</title>

Abstract

New Mexico is very proud of its tri-cultural heritage -- Hispanic, Native American, and Anglo, but that simple description belies the technical richness of the state. If one is in technology and thinks of New Mexico, particularly if involved in the defense community, one thinks of organizations like Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, White Sands Missile Range, and Phillips Laboratory. Phillips Laboratory is one of the new Air Force super laboratories and its activities are focused on space and missile technology. One should appreciate some statistical aspects of the impact of those organizations on New Mexico. In a recent National Science Foundation study, if one looks at R&D performance measured in dollars of activity, on an absolute scale, New Mexico ranks fourth nationally among the 50 states. It also ranks fourth nationally in the university sector in R&D performance. And those two numbers or rankings are not unrelated. You should come to appreciate how we have tried to leverage these strong technology organizations. The private sector ranks only twenty-first, and much of the economic development activity in New Mexico is now attempting to raise this standing by concentrating on the manufacturing sector. What this all means is that, among the 50 states, New Mexico ranks first in the ratio of R&D performance to gross state product. By that measure, technology is more significant to the State of New Mexico than it is to any other state in the Union.© (1992) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.