Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ

National Laboratories

The Boulder area is home to four U.S. national laboratories:

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration () - environmental research
• National Institute of Standards and Technology () - atomic clocks and precision optical metrology
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory () - renewable energy
• National Center for Atmospheric Research ()

All have close ties with the University of Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ, and three have joint research centers that include optics as a significant research activity:

• Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences ()
• - Research in the Physical Sciences
• Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute ()

The University of Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ also has substantial collaborative efforts with , an hour flight away. Prestigious Sandia fellowships support the research of top graduate students.

Photonics Industry and Innovation in Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ

Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ is home to more than 300 photonics companies, mostly in the Boulder area, including Ball Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, IBM and many University of Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ startup companies. The active commercial photonics sector is connected to academia and the national laboratories through the (CPIA).

Nobel Prizes in Optical Sciences

The University of Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder and JILA institute are the proud home of four recent Nobel Prize winners for optics-related research: Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman (2001), John L. Hall (2005) and David Wineland (2012).