Heinrich Tours UbiQD, Touts Success Of Tech Transfer

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, left, speaking with UbiQD Founder/CEO Hunter McDaniel during his tour of UbiQD's advanced materials and technology manufacturing facility Wednesday at 134 Eastgate Drive. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich speaks with scientists during his tour Wednesday at UbiQD. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com

From the Office of U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich:

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) toured Los Alamos-based company UbiQD's advanced materials and technology manufacturing facility, which was recently expanded to 16,000 square feet. Heinrich has long championed growing an advanced, high-tech manufacturing industry in New Mexico , including through the commercialization and transfer of innovative technologies developed at our national labs to the private sector.

As part of this larger work, Heinrich has supported UbiQD's efforts to commercialize and scale its manufacturing of low-cost and low-toxicity quantum dot nanotechnologies first developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In addition to national security applications, these materials can help support smart building facades, including spectrum-controlled greenhouse films like the UbiGro cover and photovoltaic solar windows.

"UbiQD is such a great example of how commercializing innovative technologies developed at our national labs can fuel economic growth and stand up whole new advanced manufacturing industries in New Mexico," Heinrich said. "Throughout my time in Congress, I have proudly championed strong funding for both Los Alamos and Sandia Labs, and I will continue doing exactly that in the years to come. By scaling tech transfer programs at our labs, we will help commercialize promising technologies with private sector applications. This, in turn, diversifies our state's economic engines, with whole new industries creating high-quality careers that New Mexicans can build their families around."

Background:

In 2016 and 2018, Heinrich welcomed the announcements that UbiQD received Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I and Phase II grants from the National Science Foundation. Those grant awards helped fund research and development of luminescent solar concentrating glass windows with quantum dot coatings. More recently, in 2022, UbiQD received federal funding from the U.S. Air Force to install quantum dot-tinted photovoltaic windows on military bases and from NASA to scale its UbiGro greenhouse films for boosting crop yield in both space and on Earth.

Earlier this year, UbiQD received a new $175,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), which is funded through annual appropriations from the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee that Heinrich chairs. The award will help UbiQD expand its production of UbiGro Luminescent Greenhouse Films that use the company's novel quantum dot nanotechnology to enhance the photosynthetic efficiency of greenhouses to boost crop yields and quality.

Heinrich has long fought to pass legislation and secure investments to lower costs, grow and diversify New Mexico's economy, and expand high-quality manufacturing jobs New Mexicans can build their families around.

This includes Heinrich's support for programs like the Department of Energy's Office of Technology Transitions and Laboratory Directed Research and Development that help transfer innovative technologies and advanced materials with commercial applications, like UbiQD's quantum dot technologies, to the private sector. Heinrich has also worked to deliver substantial increases in funding for both of New Mexico's national labs, doubling the total budget and nearly doubling the workforce in New Mexico for both Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory during his time in Congress.

As a member of the Conference Committee that helped pass the landmark CHIPS and Science Act , Heinrich also successfully delivered investments to strengthen New Mexico's research universities, national labs, and high-tech and advanced manufacturing industries. These investments are paving the way in quantum computing and microelectronics, already bringing results – with increases in New Mexico semiconductor manufacturing jobs.

In 2022, Heinrich also helped author and pass into law the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, which has created a manufacturing renaissance in the state and established New Mexico at the center of the nation's clean energy future. Heinrich marked the two-year anniversary of the legislation being signed into law in August , highlighting how its incentives have expanded and spurred a number of new clean energy projects across New Mexico.

Heinrich and the N.M. Delegation recently welcomed $18,449,999, for Pajarito Powder, an Albuquerque, N.M.-based company, to boost manufacturing of advanced energy technologies and create 60 direct manufacturing jobs .

Earlier this year, Heinrich highlighted $20 million from the Inflation Reduction Act for Pajarito Powder to scale production of components for electrolyzers and fuel cells. Heinrich invited the U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to tour the facilities of Pajarito Powder in Albuquerque, N.M.

In June, the N.M. Delegation welcomed $23.9 million from the CHIPS and Science Act for SolAero , an Albuquerque, N.M.-based manufacturing company, to increase its production of compound semiconductors for spacecraft and satellites, as part of an expansion and modernization of their facility. Heinrich, U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), along with Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, welcomed U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves and White House CHIPS Coordinator Ryan Harper to New Mexico to highlight this investment.

In April, Heinrich and Luján welcomed Energy Secretary Granholm to break ground on a new 216,000-square-foot Array Technologies manufacturing campus — a $50+ million investment located on Albuquerque's Westside — which will employ over 300 additional New Mexicans to facilitate the production, assembly, design, engineering, and customer service of solar tracking technology.

That same day, Heinrich, Granholm, and U.S. Representative Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the production of the first wind towers coming off the Arcosa Wind Towers manufacturing line . The ribbon-cutting ceremony came nearly nine months after Heinrich welcomed President Biden to the Belén manufacturing facility — a $60 million investment that will have a $314 million economic impact and create 250 jobs in the region .

UbiQD Founder/CEO Hunter McDaniel, left, with U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, second from left, speaking with scientists during Sen. Heinrich's tour Wednesday of UbiQD. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com