New Interim CNSI Director

Saul Winstein Professor of Organic Chemistry, J Fraser Stoddart has been named the interim director of CNSI.

Spintronics

Spintronics has important implications toward information storage. In the June '02 issue of Scientific American, CNSI professor David Awschalom describes how spintronic devices create spin-polarized currents to control current flow. Read article

News: The Toughest Transistor Yet

5/2/02, IEEE Spectrum On-line
CNSI Professor Umesh Mishra is co-author of IEEE Spectrum's feature article that describes the prospects of gallium nitride transistors. GaN holds promises for high power and energy-efficient transistors. Read more...

The University of California at Los Angeles and University of California at Santa Barbara have joined to build the California Nanosystems Institute (CNSI), which will facilitate a multidisciplinary approach to develop the information, biomedical, and manufacturing technologies that will dominate science and the economy in the 21st century.

Both science and the economy in the 21st century will require technological breakthroughs in the control of nanometer scale structure and functions, where the top-down approach of electronics manufacture converges with the bottom-up assembly of biology. At this moment, the scientific questions are being formulated, the required tools are being developed, and the possible applications of nanotechnologies and applications will be revolutionary.

California is well-positioned to lead the world and become the home of nanosystems development because the state has the resources - people, technological experience, and educational infrastructure - required for such an endeavor. Not only has California led in the development of an information-driven economy, but the state's universities and industries have also been leaders in understanding and control of biological materials, such as proteins and DNA.

There is a critical need to fund scientists and engineers across disciplines and across institutional boundaries in order to push forward in the arena of nanotechnologies. There must be innovative partnerships that integrate research and education, accelerate applications, and fully explore the implications of nanotechnology on the health, wealth and lives of the American people. The vision of the CNSI is to establish a coherent and distinctive organization that serves California and national purposes and that is embedded on the UCLA and UCSB campuses. The CNSI will be a world-class intellectual and physical environment that supports collaboration among California's university, industry and national laboratory scientists.