NIST Gives Grants For Research Labs

The National Institute of Standards & Technology has awarded more than $24 million to three universities to provide cost-sharing support for the construction of new research facilities. These one-time construction grants were selected from 93 applicants. A grant totaling $11 million goes to the University of California, Berkeley, to build a research facility for precision and quantum-level measurements, especially observation of rapid transient events at the nanoscale and control of mechanical properties of nanostructures. The University of California, San Diego, will receive $12 million for a marine ecosystem sensing and modeling lab at Scripps Institute of Oceanography that will include a multidisciplinary program to develop physical, biological, and chemical sensors. Finally, the University of Florida was awarded $1.27 million for construction of an aquatic animal health facility that will study, among other things, marine animal responses to environmental toxic compounds and low-level stressors.