The National Science Foundation (NSF) awards $94 million in funding to support four new Science and Technology Centers (STCs), partnerships that lay the foundations for advances in fields ranging from cell biology and mechanobiology to particle physics and materials science, according to the organization. Each awardee will reportedly receive up to $24 million over a five-year period, with the possibility of a continuation for five additional years. In addition to these latest awards, NSF supports eight active STCs across the U.S.
Created in 1987, the STC Integrative Partnerships program reportedly supports collaborative, world-class research. STCs address challenges at the intersection of scientific disciplines as well as focusing on new approaches to science and engineering within disciplines, according to NSF. Each STC involves partnerships across universities, federal labs, industry and other organizations.
"From deepening our understanding of intelligence, to developing energy-efficient electronics and next-generation polymers, NSF's Science and Technology Centers have stood at the forefront of discovery and innovation," says Suzi Iacono, head of the NSF Office of Integrative Activities. "The program's history sets high expectations for these newly awarded partnerships, and I'm pleased to see recipients poised to continue that legacy."
This year's four newly awarded STCs, principal investigators, their co-principal investigators and their sponsor institutions are:
- Center for Bright Beams, J. Ritchie Patterson, Georg H. Hoffstaetter, Cornell University
- Center for Cellular Construction, Wallace Marshall, Zev J. Gartner, Wendell Lim, University of California, San Francisco
- Science and Technology Center for Engineering MechanoBiology, Yale E. Goldman, Vivek B. Shenoy, Rebecca G. Wells, University of Pennsylvania; Guy Genin, Ram V. Dixit, Washington University in St. Louis; Christopher Chen, Boston University
- Science and Technology Center on Real-Time Functional Imaging, Margaret Murnane, Rafael Piestun, Markus B. Raschke, University of Colorado at Boulder; Naomi S. Ginsberg, University of California, Berkeley; Jianwei Miao, University of California, Los Angeles
For more information, visit: www.nsf.gov