Judges named: will they pick Nanosystems Institute?

from the sooner-or-later-it-will-happen dept.
UC Santa Cruz chemist Stephanie Corchnoy brings to our attention this press release, which explains that the proposed California Nanosystems Institute is indeed one of six finalists for funding by the state, with 2:1 matching funds required from non-state sources. Of the six, three will be funded. The judges: Richard Lerner (chemist, president of Scripps); Erling Norrby (Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy); John Hennessy (electrical engineer, president of Stanford); Harry Gray (chemist, Caltech); John Brauman (chemist, Stanford). The other five proposals are in biology and computers; with three chemists in this group, does the Nanosystems Institute have a good chance, or not? From the release: "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."