[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="534"] (Photo: Dick Moss /@Tavi59/staff photographer)[/caption]

ALBANY – When President Barack Obama made a 2012 visit to what is now known as SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in the state’s capital city, he said he “wanted what’s happening in Albany to happen all across the country.”

Now, with SUNY Poly leading a broad new photonics partnership unveiled Monday , the Rochester area may get that chance.

Obama’s remark referred to the wide-ranging, public-private partnership at SUNY Poly’s crown jewel: the $20 billion Albany NanoTech Complex, where more than 3,500 scientists and researchers from global giants like IBM and Intel use state-owned facilities and equipment to research and advance nanotechnology.

On Monday , Vice President Joe Biden formally announced that the Rochester area would house the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics, a more than $600 million partnership between the federal government, New York and a coalition of universities, nonprofits, major businesses like General Electric and 20 other states.

The basic approach will mimic that of the NanoTech Complex, whose consistent rise over the past two decades has made SUNY Poly’s President and CEO Alain Kaloyeros one of the most powerful men in the state.

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Jon Campbell | July 27, 2015