Working with regional venture capitalists and led by Princeton University, The National Science Foundation MIRTHE (Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment) has created an Investment Focus Group (IFG) to introduce investment and industry professionals to emerging mid-infrared technologies and application opportunities. “At this pivotal moment in MIRTHE’s growth trajectory, where increasing efforts are being placed on connecting academic research and the industries in which the technologies can be deployed, the Investment Focus Group has been created to provide guidance during the transition from R&D to realizing new profitable opportunities,” said Joseph Montemarano, executive director at the center. The IFG is comprised of representatives from industry, financing and entrepreneurship. Its first conference will be held Oct. 5, 2010 to discuss the current investment climate. The audience of investors, business people, professors and students will hear from the National Science Foundation, as well as MIRTHE scientists, industrial partners and entrepreneurs who will present on their newest technologies. In addition, the center will release its “Roadmap,” an outline that includes the center’s most commercially viable technologies. Established in 2006, MIRTHE was created as a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center with Princeton and five other university partners: City College of New York; Johns Hopkins; Rice; Texas A&M and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Its goal is to develop mid-IR optical trace gas sensing systems with the ability to detect minute amounts of chemicals found in the environment or atmosphere, emitted from spills, combustion or natural sources, or exhaled. For more information, visit: www.mirthecenter.org