WASHINGTON – Albany, in the forefront of nanotechnology research, is one of the fastest-growing cities for tech jobs, according to a new book exploring hot spots of innovation across the globe.
“You have GlobalFoundries, which has thousands of employees working in one of the most modern plants in the world,” says Antoine van Agtmael, the Dutch-born investor who wrote “The Smartest Places on Earth: Why Rustbelts Are the Emerging Hotspots of Global Innovation” with Dutch journalist Fred Bakker.
Their book, discussed at a Brookings Institution panel discussion last week, lists Albany as a leading innovation hub — part of an emerging “brainbelt” in the United States.
SUNY Polytechnic Institute, with support from state government, has been behind much of the growth of the local semiconductor and nanotechnology sectors, attracting major corporate research centers to its Albany campus that have fueled private sector job growth throughout the Capital Region.
Xiumei Dong 