A technology trade publication has ranked Maryland among the top 10 states in the fields of micro and nanotechnology, putting the state back on the list after it dropped off last year.
In its March issue, Small Times magazine ranked Maryland eighth, based on its research activities, certain small-business grants, number of patents, venture capital opportunities, work force and startup costs.
"The applications of nanotechnology are tremendous," said Paul Mauritz, assistant secretary of the technology strategy and business development division of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.
His office is focused on commercializing such efforts and making Maryland strong in the industry, which often includes biotechnology businesses.
Nanotechnology is all about scale, encompassing projects that focus on the infinitesimally small, such as electron counters and lasers that can trap atoms and ions - things biotechnology companies could use in manipulating molecules.
Last year, a report by the accounting firm Ernst & Young dropped Maryland to fourth place from third among the country's biotechnology hubs, causing public relations problems for boosters trying to draw such life science companies.
State officials repeatedly discounted and dismissed that report as too narrowly focused.
"Rankings are interesting," Mauritz said yesterday. "It's all what you make of them."
His office plans to announce the Small Times results today.
Small Times editor Candace Stuart has been compiling the list since the magazine began in 2001, though the first effort looked at regions, not states.
In 2003's list, Maryland ranked sixth, but the state dropped to 11th place in the list published in 2004. Stuart said that looking at a ranking for any given year is less important than the pattern of rankings, and Maryland "is definitely a player," she said yesterday.
Developments in technology have moved nanotechnology along recently as scientists create tiny tools to work on scales the size of atoms and electrons. Today, more than 1,700 companies in 34 nations are "pursuing the commercial promise of nanotechnology," according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg.
