Iran Ranks 9th in Nanotechnology in World

Iran’s ranking in the field of nanotechnology has considerably improved in the past eight years, a government report said.

According to the government website, Iran now stands 9th in the world and 1st in the Middle East in the field of nanotechnology.

The website noted that attaining the 29th place in the world and 2nd place in the region in area of registered nano inventions has also been among the country’s achievements in the last eight years.

Earlier this year, Secretary-General of the Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC) Saeed Sarkar announced that Iran has reached self-sufficiency in the field of nanotechnology.

“Iran has attained self-sufficiency in the field of nanotechnology and the Nano Olympiad for students has been recognized as an official event,” Sarkar said in a ceremony to inaugurate a specialized nanotechnology laboratory for students in Tehran in January.

He underlined the necessity for providing the ground for Iranian students’ growing progress in nanotechnology in a move to help them move along their foreign peers.

Earlier, Sarkar had announced that Iranian experts and scientists are able to produce 38 nanotechnology laboratory tools and equipment.

“Iran produces 38 nanotechnology lab equipment domestically,” Sarkar said in a meeting in the Northern city of Sari in September.

Stressing Iran’s huge growth in nanotechnology, he predicted that the country will soon witness a new wave of progress in the field of nanotechnology.

Sarkar also said that different Iranian industries, including the country’s auto-manufacturing companies, are making an increasing use of nanotechnology in their products.

“Nanotechnology has been employed in 8 Iranian industries, including the car-manufacturing industry,” Sarkar told FNA.

Noting that over 200 knowledge-based companies are now running activity in different fields of nanotechnology in Iran, he said, “Over 130 products have been introduced to the market by these companies to the market and a number of them have even been exported.”

The nanotechnology growth indicators for Iran have marked a high rise during the recent years as in the total number of the scientific publications, the country has just jumped up two ranks (at the beginning of 2012) to stand 10th in the world. Iran ranked 14th, in the same list, at the beginning of 2011.