Rep. Boehlert takes a tech and business tour in Ithaca and at CU

U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, right, is shown a clean room at Kionix Inc., Aug. 20, by Gregory Galvin, company CEO and president. University Photography

Boehlert, left, is greeted in Day Hall by President Hunter Rawlings, right, and Henrik N. Dullea, vice president for university relations.

Robert Stundtner, left, project director, describes the Duffield Hall construction to Boehlert as they look at the site through a window in Phillips Hall.

U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-23rd Dist.) visited Ithaca and Cornell Aug. 20 for some give-and-take on the importance of high-tech research to national security, the economy and the nation's future.

A 10-term congressman from Utica and the chairman of the influential House Science Committee -- which has jurisdiction over NASA, the National Science Foundation and research and development initiatives within several other agencies -- Boehlert is seeking re-election this year to represent most of Tompkins County under new federal redistricting lines.

The congressman began his visit with a morning breakfast discussion at Borg-Warner Morse TEC Inc. on Warren Road. Those participating in the wide-ranging interchange on issues such as trade, technology and antiterrorism included the present and former presidents of Borg-Warner, the director of government relations from the Manufacturers Association of Central New York and other upstate manufacturing executives, along with Cornell officials and faculty members, including Robert Richardson, vice provost for research; Michael Issacson, professor and associate dean of the College of Engineering, and Clifford Pollock, professor and director of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Boehlert stressed the importance of the academic community and research universities, in particular, to the nation's security effort. And he discussed the importance of the work of the House Science Committee in supporting academic research and business spinoffs that help fuel economic growth.

"In this Congress, this committee is unquestionably -- according to the technology community, the science community, the university community, all over America -- the committee that is making a major difference, preparing America to once again enjoy a period of unprecedented growth," Boehlert was quoted in The Ithaca Journal.

"Rep. Boehlert has injected new life into the House Science Committee as its chairman in the last Congress," said Henrik N. Dullea, Cornell vice president for university relations. "He has given particular attention to the role of academic research in the stimulation of the economy, while at the same time pressing for additional federal support for K-12 education in the sciences and mathematics."

After his visit to Borg-Warner, the congressman was given a tour of Cornell Research Park, across the street on Thornwood Drive, and he spent time visiting Kionix, a MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) fabrication company employing nearly 80 people. Boehlert heard a presentation by Gregory Galvin (Cornell Ph.D. '84 and MBA '93), the company's CEO/president and the former deputy director of the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility, where MEMS research is done.

Boehlert's next stop was the Cornell campus, where he had lunch with President Hunter Rawlings in Day Hall and discussed with him the university's science and technology research, K-12 outreach, Cornell's New Life Sciences Initiative and Boehlert's proposal to have an undersecretary for research created in the proposed national Department of Homeland Security.

Following the lunch discussion, Boehlert was given a tour of the Duffield Hall construction site by Pollock, Dean of Engineering W. Kent Fuchs and Robert Stundtner, Duffield Hall project director. That was followed by a visit to the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility (CNF), which is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which Boehlert has championed. The congressman was given a tour of the facility's clean room by Sandip Tiwari, CNF director, and Robert A. Buhrman, professor and director of the NSF-supported Center for Nanoscale Systems.

Boehlert's last stop of the day was a visit to the Sciencenter on 1st Street in Ithaca, where he was given a tour by Charles Trautmann, executive director of the museum and Cornell adjunct professor of civil and environmental engineering. Attending were Sciencenter staff members and trustees, along with more than 20 Cornell faculty and staff, most of whom who are involved in K-12 education and outreach efforts.

Following Boehlert's visit, Dullea noted that, although Boehlert would face no opposition in the November general election --no Democrat has filed to run for the office -- the congressman will face an important Republican primary challenge from David Walrath. With no statewide Republican primary this year, which might depress voting in the congressional primary, Boehlert is doing everything he can to urge enrolled Republicans to come out to the polls on primary day, Sept. 10.