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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 19, 2000 EXPERTS TO SELECT FINALISTS FOR UC INSTITUTES FOR SCIENCE AND INNOVATION Governor Davis's Budget to Establish World-Class Centers for Strategic Research SACRAMENTO - Governor Gray Davis today announced 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. Dr. Richard Lerner, President of the Scripps Research Institute and Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, will chair the panel. 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." "I proposed the creation of the Institutes for Science and Innovation to help California maintain its premier standing in science and technology and to provide the technological underpinnings for the State's future economic growth," Governor Davis said. "By fusing public and private sector support for cutting-edge research and training for our next generation of scientists and technological leaders, California will be well positioned to maintain its leadership in an increasingly competitive technology-based economy." 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's vision and leadership in launching a project that will benefit the entire state for decades to come," University of California president Richard C. Atkinson said. "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 FY 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: 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 partnershipwith 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. 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.
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