July 31, 2000
Experts to weigh proposals for UC Institutes for Science and Innovation
UC Santa Cruz playing a role in two proposals
Governor Gray Davis announced in mid-July the appointment of an international
panel of distinguished scholars and scientific experts to select the new California
Institutes for Science and Innovation at campuses of the University of California.
The selection committee will choose the three institutes from six finalists that
also were announced today.
UC Santa Cruz is collaborating with other UC campuses on two of the proposals: the
Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society, led by UC
Berkeley; and the California Institute for Science and Innovation in Bioengineering,
Biotechnology, and Quantitative Biomedicine, led by UC San Francisco.
The selection committee will be chaired by Dr. Richard Lerner, president of the Scripps
Research Institute and professor of chemistry and molecular biology. Other members
include:
- Erling Norrby, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, member of the Board of Directors of the Nobel Foundation;
- John Hennessy, president of Stanford University and the Willard and Inez Kerr Bell Professor of Electrical Engineering;
- Harry Gray, Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry, Beckman Institute, California Institute of Technology;
- John Brauman, J.G. Jackson-C.J. Wood Professor of Chemistry, cognizant dean of science, Stanford University.
These scientists will evaluate proposals of the six finalists, working with scientific
peer review committees consisting of private sector and academic experts. A decision
is expected by late fall.
"This is a constellation of some of the greatest scientific minds in the world,"
Governor Davis said. "Their willingness to participate in the selection process
underscores the importance of the California Institutes for Science and Innovation
to our future."
The three California Institutes for Science and Innovation are expected to produce
new scientific advances in fields critical to the future of the California economy.
They also will play an important role in training a new generation of scientists
and engineers and in stimulating the creation of new businesses and jobs for California.
Each of the three institutes ultimately selected will be devoted to basic and applied
cross-disciplinary research in a field that is expected to play a major role in the
future of California science and industry. The institutes will be designed to foster
discovery in areas where the complexity of the research agenda requires the advantages
of scope, scale, duration, equipment, and facilities that a comprehensive center
can provide.
"I applaud Governor Davis vision and leadership in launching a project that
will benefit the entire state for decades to come," said University of California
president Richard C. Atkinson. "The ripple effects from this initiative will
help ensure that California maintains and expands its role at the leading edge of
technological innovation in the 21st century."
The governor's plan provides $75 million in state funding each year for the next
four years to establish the centers; the fiscal year 2000-01 state budget includes
the first $75 million installment. The plan also requires $2 from non-state sources
for every $1 of state funds devoted to the project.
Since Governor Davis announced the institutes in January, the University of California
has solicited proposals from its 10 campuses and three national laboratories. The
resulting six proposals under review as finalists were culled from 11 initial submissions.
Selection of the finalists was based on the following criteria: vision, excellent
scientific and engineering personnel, outstanding research plan, innovative and relevant
educational experiences for students, likely economic outcomes for California, justified
budget, and clear-cut institute facilities and construction plans.
From the six finalists, three institutes will be selected in the final round of the
selection process.
The six finalists are:
- Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS),
led by UC Berkeley in collaboration with UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz and UC Merced. More
than 150 faculty members from more than 28 departments across campus would participate
in CITRIS research that will expand the study of complex, large-scale information
systems. Broad impact challenges such as urban planning, disaster mitigation, and
education are among the driving applications for basic research spanning engineering,
business, and health and social sciences.
- California Institute for Science and Innovation in Bioengineering, Biotechnology
and Quantitative Biomedicine, with UC San Francisco as the lead in partnership
with UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. This institute would develop new technologies
and new areas of research for the benefit of human health, based upon the application
of the physical and engineering sciences to biomedical research.
- California Institute of Systems Biology, with UC Irvine as the lead campus.
This proposal focuses on the new basic and applied sciences and technological developments
associated with the next generation of research into the life sciences. This unique,
multidisciplinary institute will provide the approach needed to understand complex
biological systems, placing biologists alongside medical doctors, mathematicians,
physicists and computer scientists. A primary goal is to spin off new technologies
and companies that will build and strengthen biotechnology in Orange County and California.
- California Institute in Agricultural Genomics, with UC Riverside as the
lead campus in partnership with UC Berkeley and UC Davis. This institute would position
California agriculture to capture the full range of opportunities emerging in the
field of genomics. The three-way partnership links the biological sciences to agriculture
in the areas of transformation technologies and in the generation of nucleic acid
sequence data.
- California Institute of Communications and Information Technology, with
UC San Diego as the lead campus in partnership with UC Irvine. This institute would
be driven by market applications that comprise nearly 90 percent of the California
economy and would address communications and information technology from their basic
science and engineering foundations up through their implementing technological layers.
- California Nanosystems Institute, led by UCLA in partnership with UC Santa Barbara. This institute would provide a multidisciplinary and world-class laboratory for research and technology development in nanosystems. This institute is built on the premise that this century will produce a previously unimaginable ability to control structure and function at the nanoscale level.
