"Importance of Work by Tech Firms Soars After Terrorist Attacks"
The Knoxville News-Sentinel
January 17, 2002
by Larisa Brass
Rick Seymour always knew he had a great technology. He wishes it hadn't taken Sept. 11 for everyone else to see that, too.
NucSafe, a Knoxville company Seymour started in 1999, produces nuclear detection devices. Seymour found himself doing a lot of pounding on doors and leaving business cards until the week after two hijacked airplanes crashed into New York's World Trade Center and a third hit the Pentagon in Washington. Then his phones started ringing off the hook.
NucSafe is one of several small local tech businesses that have suddenly appeared on investor and buyer radar screens since markets became interested in anything security-related last fall.
Besides NucSafe, Sarcon Microsystems has drawn interest for its infrared technology, and Atmospheric Glow Technologies has experienced rapid growth thanks to products that combat biological and chemical threats.
NucSafe's technology uses tiny glass fibers connected with a special compound to detect neutron-emitting atoms found in weapons-grade radioactive materials. The detectors are more sensitive than those of competitors, Seymour said, and the company makes a suitcase version of the product for portable inspections.
Before the attacks, "while (potential customers) were very interested, there was no budget. There was no mandate," Seymour said. "Right after the 11th we were inundated by calls from federal agencies."
The company also got feelers from a number of foreign governments, quickly landing a contract from the United Kingdom for 20 of portable devices. The company expects orders from U.S. agencies when funding trickles down from emergency terrorism bills, Seymour said. In the meantime, NucSafe has gotten a $ 2 million bridge loan, is seeking new space to set up a glass fiber and assembly plant, and is hiring workers.
"If it had not been for Sept. 11 it would have taken another year to fund applications to make this (venture) work," he said.
At Sarcon Microsystems, infrared imaging devices the company has been quietly developing for the past several years have gotten a second look from customers interested in possible military, identification and lie detection applications.
"We're getting calls several times a month from people we've never heard of before," said Don Perrine, president of Knoxville-based Sarcon. "They've come across our Web site and talk about applications we'd never thought of."
Each person's face has a unique configuration of arteries that can be scanned by infrared cameras for ID verification, Perrine said. Similarly, infrared detectors could be developed to scan faces of people under interrogation for changes in blood flow that indicate a person is lying, he said.
The company is working on prototypes of a device that could be used in multiple applications, Perrine said.
"(Sept. 11) hasn't shifted the focus of our company," Perrine said. "What it's done is amplify the importance of what we're doing and the timing of getting it done." Recent events also have brought more investor attention to Sarcon. Because of Sept. 11, Perrine said the company's current backers are "very interested" in putting $ 2 million to $ 3 million more into the company come summer.
Knoxville-based Atmospheric Glow Technologies has gotten a lot of attention for several devices that have applications for defense against biological and chemical warfare.
In the past couple of months, the company has received "well over $ 1 million" in government grants and private investment, said Kimberly Kelly-Wintenberg, president of the company. The funding helped spin out a new company, Glow Technologies, which will help move these technologies into the market and get more venture funding.
When developed, Atmospheric Glow Technologies' products will allow users to decontaminate an area infected by biological and chemical agents, she said.
Another product, which is closer to production, can be fitted on a traditional heating and air system to filter out impurities, including microorganisms, Wintenberg said.
Before Sept. 11, she said, the company planned to sell the air purifier primarily for residential and office use. Now the most attractive markets are everything from government buildings to subway systems, she said. The air system will be tested in a state building in Knoxville within the next two weeks.
Between the two companies, Wintenberg has hired 11 people since last fall and is starting to shop for new office space. It's growth she hadn1t expected for another 12 to 18 months, she said.
That their growth has come at the expense of national tragedy is an uncomfortable concept for local business owners. Some feel hesitant to talk about the success the attacks have generated for fear it will appear they're just cashing in on the nation's loss.
There is a certain amount of guilt over the recent success, Wintenberg said, but also a sense of patriotic duty.
"We feel like it's our responsibility to get (the products) out on the market as quickly as we can," she said.
Seymour said he wouldn't have foregone a salary for two years, trying to save his tiny start-up, if it was all about money.
"This is our small, hopefully non-inconsequential contribution to the greater good," he said.