Greenville is not the only Southern city being transformed by high-tech R&D. Throughout the region, huge research investments are settling into pockets of rural areas and turning small towns into hotbeds of Ph.D.'s, test tubes, clean rooms and expensive labs.
   According to the National Science Foundation, several Southern states now rank among the national leaders in industrial R&D funding at colleges and universities.
   Of the top 10 states for industry-funded R&D at universities and colleges in 2004, the Southeast accounted for three of them. North Carolina was

Upon completion, CU- ICAR will include Clemson's 95,000- sq.- ft. (8,825- sq.- m.) Carrol A. Campbell Graduate Engineering Center (pictured) and Timken Corp.'s powertrain headquarters in its five "technology neighborhoods."

fourth with $152 million, Florida eighth with $72 million and Georgia ninth with $68 million.
   The three leading states were California with $243 million, Texas with $162 million and Pennsylvania with $155 million, according to the NSF.
   There is solid evidence that access to university R&D resources leads to more high-tech jobs. According to the American Electronics Association, Florida is fourth in the nation in total high-tech employment with 265,500 workers, Georgia is No. 11 with 162,300 high-tech workers, and North Carolina is No. 16 with 134,600.
   Florida is also the second fastest growing high-tech employer in the U.S. and the third largest exporter of technology output, according to the AeA. Venture capital investments in North Carolina jumped by 60 percent in 2005, and Georgia is the fifth largest employer of high-tech telecommunications workers.
   Technology industry analysts point out, however, that regional clusters, not states, drive high-tech investment. A good example is the East Tennessee region anchored by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
   To date, more than $2 billion has been invested to create the world's most advanced facilities for nanoscience R&D in East Tennessee. The largest of these investments came to fruition on April 17 when the region's Innovation Valley Nano Alliance celebrated the grand opening of the $1.4-billion Spallation Neutron Source (SNS).
   The SNS is an accelerator-based neutron source that provides the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development. Using the world-class computational assets at the ORNL, the SNS will allow scientists to understand the structure and dynamics of material.
   Companies are being drawn like a magnet to the Knoxville area. Atmospheric Glow Technologies (AGT) is developing a sterilizer for use by medical personnel on the battlefield.
   AGT's atmospheric plasma technology is based on electrifying the air and producing a unique blend of reactive chemicals that kill micro-organisms. AGT is just one of many breakthrough technology companies growing in the emerging biotech cluster in the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley.